Not the intended use
by Zantetsuken Reverse
Summary: After the events of DoS, Soma has returned to normal life. Well, as normal as you can get when abusing your freaky magic powers for the most mundane tasks. Since when is magic only useful in evil cursed castles? These souls don't come with a warning label... On Hiatus, be back later.
1. Chapter 1: Ghoul

I know that after Aria Soma loses his souls, but what if he didn't after Dawn?

Please forgive me for any cultural mistakes. I am not Japanese, and most of the cultural stuff I know is from manga. Also I will be omitting Japanese suffixes because they're too easy to get wrong.

Not intended for everyday use

Ghoul

After the incident with Celia, Soma Cruz had returned to his normal life. At least, as normal as the reincarnation of the Dark Lord Who Was Not Voldemort could manage.

Soon enough, thoughts of monsters and evil cultists were banished out of Soma's mind once he returned to college. Hordes of Medusa Heads screaming for his blood? Easy. Remembering how exactly integrals of trig functions worked? Not.

Still, knowing that he would have to someday fight against the forces of evil once more, Soma kept a tighter rein on his souls than before. He had not lost a single one since the incident. At least once a week, he trained with Arikado's Agency.

Sadly, while Soma was generally a responsible person, it wasn't rare for him to abuse his powers. He had promised to himself never to hurt any normal person with his powers, but everything else was fair game.

Like when he returned to his dorm after the whole With Light incident. His roommates were generally clean people, but they had a habit of forgetting about food in the fridge and leaving it for other people to clean up.

When Soma arrived in the empty dorm, he was hungry. The first thing he did after putting down his stuff was raid the fridge. All that his search produced was moldy rice, some fish with suspicious fungus growing on it, and a chunk of rotten fudge cake.

Soma looked at the former food, and remembered what his mother had always told him about wasting food.

He equipped the Ghoul soul, locked the doors, barred the windows, and dug in. The Ghoul soul made everything taste like it was at its freshest, something Soma was greatly thankful for. A superpower that just suppressed the gag reflex and stopped food poisoning was useful but not pleasant. The rice was warm and fragrant, the fish slippery and salty. The cake was a tad sweet, but you can't have everything. All he had to do was dispose of the evidence and not switch souls until the next morning. Once he had eaten a piece of rotten meat with the Ghoul soul on, and then immediately went soul hunting with the Ghost Dancer soul. The result was messy. Soma was glad that in the castle of an evil cultist, he didn't have to care about ruining the carpet. It seemed petty, but somehow knowing that he was spiting Celia made him feel better while writhing on the ground in pain.

A sudden noise made Soma jump. Just the guys from next door playing Smash. Good. Not his roommates. They wouldn't catch him.

His roommates didn't come back until midnight, long after Soma had washed away all evidence. They would probably assume that he had cleaned up after them. Which was true, in a way.

As he lay in bed, Soma realized what possibilities lay ahead of him if he used his souls… creatively.

X

"You're joking," said Kazuya.

"No, I am not," said Soma. "Want to bet?"

Kazuya put up 5,000 yen. "I really don't think you're serious."

Soma looked at the gallon of expired milk in front of him. He double checked that the Ghoul soul was still inside of him. It groaned at him inside the sea of his souls. He checked to see that it wasn't the zombie. That would be a fiasco.

Kazuya turned around to face their other roommate. "Hey, Naoki, Soma here says he can drink off the whole gallon without throwing up."

"What? 10,000 you can't," said Naoki, slapping down a bunch of bills.

Three minutes later, Soma made off with enough yen to pay off his book loans. Kazuya and Naoki had reluctantly forked over the cash, saying that a bet was a bet and are you sure that you're feeling all right? Take some antibiotics or something.

Luckily, although he sprinted out of class later that morning straight to the bathroom, it was from the absurd amount of liquid he had drank in one sitting and not from the fact that it was old enough to vote in the United States.

X

The next time Soma used his soul was rather uneventful.

"Hey! Soma!" Naoki shouted as Soma was walking to class. "Did you eat the fish this morning?"

"Yes?" said Soma. "What about it?"

"Turns out all the hake's off. Something went wrong with the refrigeration while shipping or something. If you get food poisoning, I'll give you my notes."

Soma thanked the shorter first year and privately switched to the Ghoul soul. It might not help when he didn't have it on when consuming the fish, but it was certainly better to try.

Whether it was by his natural digestive processes or by his dark and terrible black magic, Soma did not get food poisoning.

X

"Say, Mina, you know how I'm allergic to nuts?" Soma said while on a walk one day. "Do you think that if I had some with the Ghoul soul on, I wouldn't go into shock?"

Mina thought for a moment. "It's worth a try," she said. "If you did eat nuts without knowing, it certainly would be useful to be able to stave off the effects. Remember the time I had to hose you down? Just make sure you have your inhaler. And that adrenaline shot thing."

So they went to the ice cream shop and got two cones of Butter Nutty Fudge Super Delight. Then they ducked into an alleyway so that the shop person wouldn't feel guilty about selling nut ridden ice cream to someone who was allergic.

"Here goes," said Soma. He took a lick. "Hey, this is good! I think I've missed out on this for my entire li…"

His face started swelling.

"Well, it seems as if this operation is a failure," said Mina. "Should I call an ambulance?"

Soma threw up in response.

In the end, they rushed Soma to the nearest chair so that he could activate his Ouija Table soul and not die right away.

TO BE CONTINUED!

By the way, Soma's roommates are based off of characters from another game series. Guess which one.

Any requests? I'll take some for souls that don't appear in DoS.


	2. Chapter 2: Paranoia

By the way, characters that are shown only in a bad light are not based on anyone or any fictional character. Any names that turn up are complete coincidence. I don't like bashing. Well, Harry Potter Umbridge bashing is fine.

I'm not really sure how the Mirror World works. There are only two rooms with both enemies and mirrors in them: one has zombies, and the other is Dario and Aguni's (there's also Paranoia, of course, but that doesn't count because you can't enter mirrors until you kill it). Neither Dario nor the zombies appear in the Mirror World, and they don't have reflections. If real people have reflections, then do they appear? Just like having the Ghoul soul make rotten food taste good, I winged it.

Paranoia

"Soma."

Soma turned around at the sound of his name. Kazuya was sitting at his desk, somehow released from the spell of his computer. "You're going for breakfast?"

"Yeah. Do you want anything?"

"No thanks, I'll go down when I'm hungry," responded the redhead. He paused to type another line of something. "You know Daisuke? The guy with the sideburns who always looks like he wants to kill someone?"

"Works at the coffee shop?" said Soma. "Yeah, I know him."

"Well, watch out. He thinks you were the one who trashed his motorbike last night. I TOLD Naoki to lay off the whiskey, but _no_ , he had to see if having a bug stuck in his eye would help him…"

Kazuya trailed off, typing another dozen lines of code. He did that sometimes. What exactly he was working on, Soma had no idea. "I'll be careful," said Soma.

As he walked down the steps of the dorm, Soma began running simulations of his course of action. Daisuke wasn't really a bad person, he recalled. Just a tad violent and temperamental. Called his mother every day. And even if this guy was just a jerk that kicked puppies, Soma wouldn't actually use any of his dark powers to hurt a normal person.

 _That rules out all of my weapons and half of my souls_ , he reflected. He shook that thought out of his mind. _No. Most of my problems can be solved without freaky magical powers. I've gotten along well so far, and I shouldn't rely on them all the time. Chances are, I can deal with this by either talking or running…_

But, his imagination piqued, Soma began thinking up of various ways to mess with Daisuke as he entered the cafeteria. _Throw a cat at him_ , he thought. _Or give him a cat and persuade him to pet it._

All this 'planning' was ruined when Soma, lost in thought, bumped right into Daisuke.

Daisuke dropped his bowls of salt fish and eggplant over rice and pudding (that is to say, he had a bowl of pudding and also a bowl containing salt fish, eggplant and rice. Before he dropped them, of course), and they shattered and splat on the ground.

Soma stared at the mess, and back to Daisuke. "Sorry…?"

Daisuke glared at Soma with the heat of a thousand suns. Then he cleared his throat. "Start running."

Soma gulped, and complied.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND DANCE ON YOUR GRAVE!" shouted Daisuke as they dashed up the staircase, a threat that Soma's distant memory of being Dracula scoffed at.

While Soma had the Black Panther soul (the one he called 'The one that makes me like The Flash but not'), he found out the hard way that using a flashy soul that made shockwaves wherever he ran to get to class on time was not a good idea. He barely avoided getting caught by the photography club and worse, Arikado. From then on, he vowed not to use that soul if there was the slightest chance of being seen.

Which meant that Soma only had his (admittedly incredible, considering that he often swung swords with giant rocks stuck in them) natural physical ability to get away from a guy rumored to bench-press cars.

Soma pushed and shoved through the crowd of students, taking care to cut as many corners as possible. He was secretly thankful for the superhuman stamina that came with running through two castles full of unearthly horrors; sprinting at breakneck speed up several flights of steps wasn't exactly his normal workout routine. Julius said that the Belmont Clan had a tradition of hating staircases, although the accounts rarely specified why. Apparently, when the Belmont clan became rich enough to afford a house with more than one storey, the builders were specifically told not to install stairs and instead were instructed to make platforms for jumping. The builders were not amused. Julius had also told Soma that it was a rite of passage for everyone in the clan (especially ones who married in) to get to the second floor without help.

 _Get to the roof_ , Soma said to himself. _Then jump or turn into a bat._

Unfortunately, Soma was not yet completely adjusted to the school. So rather than kicking open the door to the roof, he found himself in a men's bathroom. In other words, a dead end.

Soma looked around wildly. No windows. All three stalls occupied. He could still hear Daisuke's pounding footsteps reaching ever closer. Then he saw himself.

"Of course," he muttered. "Stupid me."

Thirty seconds later, Daisuke crashed into the men's room. "Soma Cruz!" he shouted. "Take your punishment like a man and come out!"

He was met with the sound of someone flushing.

Daisuke ripped open the first stall, breaking the lock.

Kazuya looked up from his computer. "Occupied, jackass," he said in a tone that suggested that this hulking tower of a man was just a mere annoyance to him.

"Kazuya? What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm programming."

"Yes, but why are you doing it here?"

Kazuya gave Daisuke another annoyed look. "Well, I've been constipated for the past few da-"

"Never mind," said Daisuke, slamming the stall door shut. Naturally, since bathroom doors are generally not meant to shut without locks, it bounced back.

"And for some reason, chocolate lubricates my-"

"DON'T WANT TO KNOW!"

"Fix the damn door, will you? This is really embarrassing and I can't get up right now."

Daisuke chose to ignore the computer dude and punched out the lock on the next door.

"Hello," said the occupant. "Did you need something?"

Daisuke and the occupant had a brief staring contest. The occupant showed no emotion whatsoever.

Seeing as the person blandly sitting down and relieving himself was clearly not the one he was looking for, Daisuke shut the door and proceeded to the last occupied stall.

"You've got to be right here, asshole!" Daisuke shouted as he prepared to punch out the lock.

However, at that moment, the occupant of the final stall happened to open the door. Rather than metal and plastic, Daisuke's fist met the hand of the last occupant.

"Seriously?" said Naoki, rubbing his forehead with his right hand and crushing Daisuke's fist with this left. "What's this all about?"

"Um… sorry," said Daisuke, cowed by the smaller boy. "I'll just…"

Naoki caught Daisuke in a headlock, something the average bystander would find unimaginable considering Daisuke's mounds of muscle and Naoki's slighter build. "IT'S SEVEN IN THE MORNING AND I HAVE A HANGOVER! PICK A BETTER TIME TO PISS SOMEONE OFF!"

Soma couldn't see what exactly Naoki was doing from without exposing himself and his power to the outside world, but he heard tiles shattering. He sat down in everyone's blind spot: right between the mirrors. The only way anyone could possibly see him was if they could stick their heads in the mirror and look straight down. Entering and exiting the Mirror World was a piece of cake. Doing it without being seen was the hard part. It seemed as if no one was going to leave any time soon. With a sigh, he took out his school books and started reading. Might as well do something productive while he was here.

Ten minutes later, Soma finally got a break. "Naoki, I think that's enough," Soma heard Kazuya say calmly. "He didn't do anything but insult you and break a few locks."

Naoki dropped Daisuke (at least that must have been the sound Soma heard) with a thump, and said, "Yeah, you're right. I'm going for breakfast."

Kazuya sighed. "What is with that guy? I swear in the name of computers that he's…" He trailed off and did more typing.

"Are you all right?" asked a new voice. Since Soma didn't hear the door open since Daisuke came in, it must have been the occupant whose name he didn't know.

"What's it to you?" Daisuke manage to snap.

"Why did you come in here, anyways?" asked the new voice.

"To get that little runt Soma Cruz!" said Daisuke. "He's the one who trashed my motorbike last ni-"

"That was Naoki," said Kazuya. "He tried a few shots last night. Told him it was illegal, but he didn't listen. When we got back, he kept telling me that the Hell Biker was after him again for stealing his candles. That's when he ripped apart your bike."

Kazuya sighed. "And then he fainted after seeing a bullfight poster. Strange, that one is. Now then, how am I going to do this with exactly six hundred and sixty six lines of code?"

Daisuke was suddenly silent, presumably contemplating whether to try to take on the smaller kid who just piledrove him. "But Soma bumped into me, didn't he? He made me drop my pudding."

"Did he?" said the other person. "In that case, I'll treat you to breakfast."

The door to the bathroom (heavier than the stalls, so Soma could clearly tell the difference) opened and shut. Knowing that Kazuya was distracted by his typing, Soma flashed out of the Mirror World.

X

The cafeteria was crowded. REALLY crowded. Maybe it wasn't that much more crowded than it was before Soma returned from Celia's castle, but it seemed worse. _I'm on edge_ , thought Soma. _I spent a long time in that place. The slightest mistake could have cost me my life or my sanity. I sharpened my senses to the point where I could hear the slightest scratch of claw on stone or carpet. That doesn't go away that easily._

Around him, students jostled, spat, chewed with their mouths open, spilled and sloshed. Soma tried to eat his miso soup in peace, but there were just too many… distractions. Everything tried to grab his attention like a class full of rowdy children.

"That's it," said Soma after he narrowly dodged someone throwing food at him. He took his food on a tray left the cafeteria.

Anyone who would have observed Soma would have guessed that he would be going to the roof, or to a secret spot somewhere in the building. In a way, that was true. Except this secret spot happened to be inside of a mirror.

Some time ago, Soma had found the abandoned drama dressing room, which was full of mirrors and blankets and junk. Conveniently enough, a large section of the room was not reflected by any mirror. So Soma stole the blankets, took them inside the mirror, and made a blanket fort. He started going there to study when he found that his room and the library were both too loud for him, but then he started storing his video game consoles there, so that they wouldn't get stolen. He also ended up stashing all of his weapons except for his very best there; all the rest went inside of his hammerspace coat.

And, for now, it was the spot where Soma ate his breakfast.

X

Despite the risks of being seen, Soma still used his Paranoia soul almost every day.

The school baths were clean, but got crowded very easily. After being pushed around and jostled for way too long, Soma took to going through the mirror in the locker room and bathing in the Mirror World.

The Mirror World was weird but made some amount of sense. Incorporeal living things like Aguni became real in the Mirror World. While real people were reflected by mirrors, on the Mirror side they only appeared like paintings or window drawings on the mirror itself (Soma found that kind of confusing). Even when mirrors showed a room full of people, the Mirror World was completely empty. Soma took this as his chance to soak in lots of hot water in peace.

He almost got caught a couple of times. His roommates were surprisingly sharp; Naoki noticed that he never saw Soma in the baths, but he always smelled clean. Kazuya saw some of Soma's scars, but wondered why he never got a chance to see all of them. Soma decided that once a week would be bearable, and resolved to spend at least one day in a real bath to alleviate suspicion.

Also, Soma was still clearly visible in mirrors when he was in the Mirror World. One night, as he was soaking in one of the tubs, he heard a shriek.

"Gh-ghost!" screamed someone bathing in the real world. Soma looked into the mirror, and saw that it was one of the boys bathing in the same bathtub as him. That is to say, the real world counterpart to the bath he was in. While it did not reflect reality, the mirror showed him bathing with two other boys.

"Calm down," said the other boy. Soma recognized his voice as the same guy who got barged in on by Daisuke in the bathroom.

"But Yu!" (Soma only later learned that this guy's name was Yu, and his friend was not calling him 'You.') "Look in the mirror! Ach! He's looking at me!"

Yu looked into the mirror, and then turned to where Soma should have been. "Hello," he said. "Are you enjoying the bath?"

Soma was speechless. "Um… yes?"

"Okay then," said Yu. "Do you want to kill us or wish harm on anyone?"

"No," said Soma.

"Okay," said Yu.

The other boy in the bath shivered despite the warmth. "Seriously, Yu. You have nerves of titanium."

The boys left him alone after that. They didn't pursue him or exorcise him, which was lucky because Soma wasn't sure if an exorcism would hurt him or not.

X

"Say, Mina?" said Soma one day while they were out on yet another walk. "You know how I can go into mirrors?"

Mina sighed and licked her ice cream that did not contain any nuts at all. "Not this all over again. Is it really a good idea for you to be messing around with your souls like this?"

"It's better to experiment with them now under controlled conditions than to try them out when I'm in dire straits," said Soma. "If anything goes wrong, you're here."

"Shouldn't you get someone who knows a bit more about creepy black soul magic, like Yoko or Arikado?" asked Mina.

Soma shrugged. "They'd never let me try. Besides, since you're here, you can call them if I can't make it back."

Mina gave Soma a grudging look of agreement. "Okay, but don't say that I never said this might be a bad idea."

"It's not that bad of an idea," said Soma. "It's the same principle."

"Last time, you almost passed out from shock," Mina pointed out. "You said that since nuts were practically poison to you and the Ghoul soul processed poison, you wouldn't die from it."

"Yes, but it just turned out that it didn't work on stuff that wasn't already poisonous," said Soma. "Speaking of which, do you think it'll stop me from getting drunk? Know any good places where I can get cheap drugs? For that matter, would I die from drinking snake poison or anthrax? Would I be immune to diseases that involve ingesting an infected person's fluids?"

"Soma!" said Mina.

"Fine. Not until I'm twenty," said Soma. "Besides, disease catching is too complex to experiment with just one subject. Anyways, the Paranoia soul allows me to enter the Mirror World from any mirror that I could reasonably crawl through. Do you think it works with any reflective surface, or just mirrors? Would distorted images make it harder?"

Mina gave Soma the look of the long suffering childhood friend who always got roped into this sort of thing. "First off, I doubt that every mirror is so perfect that there are absolutely no distortions, or that every single mirror has exactly the same distortions. So don't bother trying funhouse mirrors, because they would work just as well. Second…. Actually, I am kind of curious. Would windows work? What about water or oil, or mercury? Does it have to do with the percentage of light that gets reflected? Lots of things reflect, so what can and can't you use?"

Soma grinned. "I was just thinking about windows, but you're right about water. Next time someone tries to drown me, I can just escape through the Mirror World. Let's not try mercury, though."

"Yeah. I'd probably get put on a watchlist if I tried."

Soma and Mina ducked into yet another alleyway, this one with a reasonably sized window facing outwards. The shutter was down, so there wasn't much chance of being seen.

"All right, here goes," said Soma, and he flashed through the window.

Thirty seconds later, he came back with a box of fried chicken. "Interesting," he said. "I ended up on the other side of the mirror. Want a leg?"

Mina accepted the chicken. "Maybe it's because the glass is transparent, and light passes more than it reflects?"

"Heck if I know," said Soma.

"Are there any reflective translucent materials out there?"

"Probably," said Soma. "But I don't know any off the top of my head. If I find one, I'll give it a try."

"What happens if we use a two-way mirror? Even on the reflective side, if you look closely you can see the other side."

"Do you know where we can get a two-way mirror?"

Neither of them knew any place that had or sold them, so they proceeded to the next experiment.

"So you're experimenting with your souls, eh?" said Julius when the couple arrived on the door to his apartment.

"Yeah," said Soma, not really sure how else to respond. "I'm trying out the one that puts me in mirrors. Please don't tell Arikado."

"Don't worry, I won't," said Julius. "Just as long as you don't mess up too badly. Why did you call me, anyways?"

"Several reasons, actually," said Mina. "We need a bathtub and privacy. Both the public bathhouse and the school baths are gender segregated, so I can't be there if anything goes wrong. And even if we didn't have to worry about that, there's still the chance that other people might see. Neither of us live around here, and even if we did, we'd have to explain to our parents why we're both going to take a bath at the same time at our age. You know about Soma's powers and that we're not doing anything, so there's no danger of exposure."

Julius nodded. "Good reasons. But Soma, what do you plan on doing with this?"

Soma shrugged. "Mostly to satisfy my curiosity. But I was thinking that it could come in handy some day."

Julius sighed. "You know, Juste Belmont wrote in his diary that even after the Belmonts became rich enough to afford horses, they never used whips. My ancestors were way too good at using the Vampire Killer to kill the creatures of the night, so they found it hard to be gentle with the horses. After Juste killed his pony by accident when he picked up the Vampire Killer instead of an ordinary whip, the family decided to either not whip horses anymore or just walk everywhere."

"Your point being?" asked Soma.

"My point is, don't use your souls for anything but fighting. I don't mind you experimenting, but whatever it is you're planning, you had better stop."

"But what if I'm using souls with no combat purposes?" asked Soma. "I can't hurt anyone with the Paranoia soul. All right, I did technically hurt Dario and Aguni, but that doesn't count."

"Fine then," said Julius. "Just don't use up the hot water."

"Your ancestor really wrote that?" asked Mina.

Julius nodded. "My family has been keeping all of its paper records for centuries, including journals and diaries. They have lots of useful stuff in there; Trevor Belmont drew a map of Castlevania in his diary, along with ways to kill all of its monsters. Of course, he also put in a lot of other stuff… How he managed to court Great-times-whatever-Grandma Sypha, I'll never know."

Julius proceeded to fill the bath with cold water. Soma stripped down to a swimsuit and equipped the Undine soul, and Mina got towels. [1]

"Should we wait until the surface clears up a bit?" said Soma, standing on the surface of the water.

"Let's try it twice," said Mina. "If it works when it's clear, try going when it's turbulent."

Soma nodded and lay down on the water. "If I go into the Mirror World and end up in the water, I don't want to hit my head."

"Fair point," said Mina.

Soma flashed into the Mirror World. As he predicted, he landed under the water. He walked around the bathroom for a bit, shivered, dried himself off on the reflections of Julius's towels, and then lay down on the water. He flashed back into the Real World.

"You know, I still have no idea how I can take items from the two worlds without messing with the fabric of the universe," said Soma as he checked Julius's real towels for wetness.

"Magic, I guess," said Mina. "Let's try it standing up."

"What? No!" said Soma. "I just said that I didn't want to hit my head!"

"I'll treat you to ice cream," said Mina.

"Sure," said Soma.

As it turned out, doing it when there wasn't enough room on the other side just resulted in the soul working as if the water was a mirror; Soma emerged in the Mirror World on top of the water.

"Interesting," said Mina. "Now let's try turbulence."

Lying on water while it was being splashed around him was not pleasant, but it was manageable. Soma emerged on top of the water, and came back.

"Can we get ice cream now?" he asked.

"Not yet," said Mina. "Now let's try doing it while the bath is draining…"

X

Years later, the experiments did come in handy when someone tried to forcibly baptize him in a blessed toilet. He thanked Mina for keeping him at Julius's apartment well into the night, even if Kazuya and Naoki teased him incessantly the next day.

TO BE CONTIUNED!

Yeah, I really didn't have much of an idea on what could be done with the mirror world soul. I think that in Lyrics of Sorrow, a crossover with Magical Girl Lyrical Nahona, Soma used the mirror soul to get around without being detected. He would go into the Mirror World where no one else was, and then use his Black Panther soul to run very fast from point A to point B without anyone seeing. That's a really cool idea and I wish I could have come up with it.

[1] Soma's Undine soul: Yes, I know that's an Aria only soul. Let's say he ran into another one.


	3. Chapter 3: Julius

I might do more Julius chapters. As soon as I can figure out how giant boomerang crosses can come in handy…

The whole bit about the Belmonts not using whips was partially inspired by the opening of Rondo. Despite being in a hurry, Richter doesn't whip his horses. I don't know how to ride a horse, and I don't think that people use whips anymore, but I'm not sure about back then.

I like Leon; it's just that I find it funny to joke about his love life.

Of course, Julius isn't so above it all, either…

"…So, you'll help us with experiments if we help you with your archiving?" asked Mina.

Julius nodded. "It's boring and tedious work for those who don't know the language. Romanian is my first language and picked up a few others during my… hobo time, but Leon Belmont preferred to write in Latin. Since both of you know at least some Latin, I figured it would stop it from being dull."

Soma shrugged. "The real reason that I wanted to learn was because Mina was doing it too. Do you want us to type this in Latin or in Japanese?"

"Preferably both," said Julius. "I want to read this too, but I don't want the meaning to be corrupted through translation. I have a Latin to Japanese dictionary if you get stuck."

The trio set to work, transcribing and translating the diaries of Leon Belmont onto the computer and on several flash drives. The trio had decided to start with the very first diary, one that was made long before Leon had ever heard of vampires. "We can't skip it just because we don't think there's anything of value," said Julius. "Besides, we can probably see if we can sell this to a museum or something."

"I guess there's got to be at least one person in the world who cares about how a teenage boy is crushing on his neighbor," said Mina.

"But this is a _historical_ teenage boy!" said Soma. "It doesn't matter what bad poetry he writes or that he doesn't have the guts to even talk to her; if he's a _historical_ teenage boy, historians will go wild just for a chance to read!"

"That's my ancestor you're talking about," said Julius, slightly annoyed.

"It's a diary," said Mina. "It's his secret thoughts. It's not like he meant to publish it."

Soma opened his mouth and closed it. "Sorry," he said. "It's just… something about Leon is putting me on edge."

Julius sighed. "You know, half of the stuff I found out from my ancestor's diaries is more than what I wanted to know. If you take out the whole 'hunting the night' thing, the Belmont clan would be great soap opera fodder. Like the argument between Richter and Annette over whether they were going to take out the elevators Juste installed so that non-superhumans would be able to get to the attic. But I managed to glean a lot of useful information from their journals. There's no reason to think that any of this is completely useless."

"It's not like the entire history of the Belmont clan could be compromised just by omitting this book," grumbled Soma.

X SPOILERS FOR LAMENT OF INNOCENCE

Weeks later, Soma was proven wrong. "Just… wow," said Mina.

Julius looked at the Vampire Killer. "I may never coat it… I mean her in Vaseline again. It just seems too… rude for me to cover her in lubricant." [1]

Soma looked at the whip, and then bowed very deeply. "Um… I'm sorry, Miss Sara?"

X END SPOILERS

Back in the present, the trio got back to work. Soma started using his Zephyr timestop powers to read more in the same period of time; Julius had admitted that had he known where the family stopwatch was kept, he would have done the same. Some of Leon's diary was interesting; Mina in particular found the social structure of the eleventh century very noteworthy, but neither Soma nor Julius was very interested. They perked up a bit when they found a section about creepy ominous sightings in the Western Woods, but it turned out to be an elaborate prank by Leon's older brothers. [2]

"I'll go make some tea," said Julius, and he left for the kitchen. "How do you like yours? I have cream and sugar."

"No cream or sugar for me, please," said Mina. Soma said the same.

"I have no idea how you can drink it without anything," Julius muttered to himself as he put the kettle on the fire, taking the cream and sugar out for himself. "I feel like I'm forgetting something… Oh, right." He got out a package of chocolate chip cookies.

Once the water came to a boil, Julius poured out three cups. "Tea's ready," he called. "Come to the kitchen if you want it; I don't want any spills on the books or the computer."

The three of them sat down at the table. Soma took a cookie, while Mina took a sip of the tea. "This is really good tea!" she said.

"Thanks," said Julius. "I really have no idea how I got so good at making it. Still, don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"What does that mean?" asked Mina.

Just as Soma was about to try the delicious tea, Julius shouted, "DON'T DRINK THAT TEA!"

Soma dropped the cup onto the table with a clatter, splashing tea everywhere, including—

"AAAHHH!" screamed Soma and Mina in unison. While most of the tea made a mess all over the table and the floor, all of the tea that splashed onto Soma burst into flames.

Julius backed down. "All right, this shouldn't be as bad as it LOOO-"

Mina looked around for water, any water—and saw the kettle. Hot water was better than no water, so she poured it on the flames—

Which made it worse. "WHAT KIND OF WATER SETS STUFF ON FIRE?!" she shouted.

"Stop, drop, and roll, Soma!" Julius called.

Soma happened to have enough presence of mind to listen to Julius. Unfortunately, since the tea also spilled onto the floor, there was even more fire.

"Um… let's try bath water?" said Mina.

Soma wasn't having any of it. He forced his burning body onto Julius's chair and activated his Ouija Table soul. The fire kept on burning him, but his body recovered faster than it melted. After several minutes of his fiery glare at Julius, as well as the consumption of more cookies, the fire was extinguished.

"Explain," Soma said to Julius in a quiet voice that was more venom-filled than any threat Dracula made against his ancestors. It probably would have been more intimidating had Soma not been covered in cookie crumbs.

Julius looked uncomfortable. "…You know how I was a hobo for more than half my life?" he said.

The two students nodded.

"Well, for a long time, my only reliable source of unpolluted water was this," said Julius, pulling out the bottle of Holy Water. He dumped the contents into a glass. The bottle filled itself again with Holy Water. "I had no way of knowing that it was Holy Water until I ran out of things to throw at a really disgusting sewer monster one day."

"The cross on top didn't tip you off?" said Mina.

"I thought it was just decoration," said Julius. "There are some liquors that come in containers like these. I just figured that I had drank off one of those and was using the bottle as a container."

"So you just drank it?" said Soma, not really believing what he was hearing. "And you didn't… have your throat burned or anything?"

Julius nodded. "You see, Holy Water only hurts things aligned with darkness. This includes the more angelic of Dracula's minions, by the way. Normal people are fine with it."

"And since I'm Dracula's reincarnation, I get hurt, too?" said Soma.

"I suppose so," said Julius. "Good thing I warned you."

"Yes, good thing indeed," said Soma dryly. Secretly, he was grateful that his clothes weren't ruined. "How are you going to explain all the shouting to your neighbors?"

"I'll just say we were watching a really bad horror movie," said Julius.

"Wait… I've been inside churches before without getting hurt…" said Soma.

"Has anyone tried to baptize you?" asked Julius. "Or has anyone touched you with a cross? One that wasn't just unblessed jewelry; that actually makes a difference."

"Come to think of it, you got sick every time you drank from the shrine's fountain," said Mina. "We thought that it had bacteria or something in there, but I guess it was just the holiness. I guess we can open it up again."

"Are you sure that it wasn't just bacteria?" asked Julius. "I'm not saying that it is, but something might have moved in there."

"Anyways, so you boil Holy Water for tea?" asked Soma.

"Yes," said Julius. "Old habits die hard, and it saves me on water bills. In fact, I use it to soak pots and pans, boil pasta, cook things that involve water, water plants, keep fish alive, and lots of other stuff. I drew the line at cleaning toilets with it. And it takes too long to fill a bath with it. Thank goodness for that; you would have died if I had done that last time you were here."

"Somehow, that seems sacrilegious," said Soma. "Is it, Mina?"

Mina shrugged. "I don't know enough about Christianity to be sure."

"Well, if I've been using it for over thirty years without divine punishment, it's probably all right," said Julius.

"Um… Julius?" asked Soma.

"Yes?"

"Can I touch you?"

"Sure…?"

Soma found that touching Julius on the shoulder or hand gave him a slight burn, but thankfully did not result in either of them bursting into flames. "Huh. So I guess touching someone filled with Holy Water does hurt. Mina, can I touch your hand?"

Mina agreed in the name of scientific experimentation and not because she wanted to hold Soma's hand. Really. Soma found that touching her hand didn't cause any adverse effects.

"I've been drinking mostly Holy Water for decades, so I guess I'm a special case," said Julius. "Maybe I'm sixty percent Holy Water by now? If I ever have to mud-wrestle a werewolf naked, that's good to know."

"Maybe you can be like Harry at the end of Sorcerer's Stone," said Mina. "You know how wherever he touches Quirrel, his body crumbles? Or maybe we can use your blood or urine to exorcise demons. I'm joking," she added, seeing Julius mull it over like he was seriously considering it.

Soma took another cookie. "Can we get back to work? Also, Julius, for lighting me on fire, treat us to dinner. I'm sick of eating curry all the time."

As they read about Leon angsting over whether it was his duty to go on the Crusades and possibly die, leaving his beloved Sara alone, Mina said, "Come to think of it, what about all that holy runoff you produce? I don't know how well they recycle water, but all that holiness has to go somewhere. And does the blessing last even when the water is evaporated or frozen? Does natural rain made from Holy Water still hurt dark creatures?"

"Good idea," said Julius. "I think I have Holy Water ice cubes in there somewhere…"

X

Meanwhile, Genya Arikado was thankful that he carried around the Holy Snorkel everywhere he went. Running water was normally deadly to him, and it was required for things such as bathroom etiquette. He turned on the tap. _It wasn't as if this is a bad thing_ , he mused. _It's much more hygienic than it was when I was born. Not nearly as many waterborne diseases._

If anyone had been next to him when Arikado was washing his hands, they would have noticed that his every part of skin exposed to the water was producing burns. Arikado looked down at his hands. _Note to self: try not to use taps when on the same water grid as Julius_.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Julius coating the Vampire Killer in Vaseline: Not sure about whips, but you're supposed to rub Vaseline onto leather jump ropes to protect it.

[2] Leon's brothers: I read on some page on TV Tropes that Leon most likely was at least a second son, because he wouldn't be allowed to go on the Crusades otherwise. Someone had to keep the family lands and name.


	4. Chapter 4: Waiter Skeleton

I thank Lucifer XIII for giving me the idea for this.

It's not that I doubt that Richter is the strongest Belmont, but how exactly do the characters tell if he's stronger than the others? We only have the narration's word for it; what do they have?

After this chapter, that should be enough hints on who the roommates are (given that you're familiar with the franchise, of course). Okay, fine, the reviewers figured it out already. I'll tell next chapter.

Waiter Skeleton

As a starving student, Soma was rarely picky about what he ate. Given that he often used the Ghoul soul to eat stuff that had long gone bad, that was a definite understatement.

But he was sick of curry.

"You really make good curry," said Kazuya as he multitasked spooning curry into his mouth and typing with his other hand.

"Can't you make anything else?" said Naoki. "The only thing that Kazuya and I know how to make is bonfire roasted anything."

"If you want something other than curry, you'll have to either buy it or make it yourself," said Soma, barely nibbling at his plate. "Order a pizza or some ramen or something."

Naoki, however, was very cheap, and accepted the food that was given to him. Soma didn't blame him; after all, he was the one who just produced curry from thin air rather than spend money on food.

Soma started using his Waiter Skeleton soul to make himself curry on one of the train rides home from Celia's castle. The station had overpriced food for sale, so Soma taken a gamble and checked to see if the curry really was edible or not. After all, magical curry that appears out of thin air and is best used on giant moving metal armor monsters probably isn't the best thing to eat. Soma had used the Ghoul soul on the first try, just in case.

As it turned out, it was actually delicious. The only reason why it actually hurt monsters was because it was very hot. Once he was back on campus (and close to a hospital), Soma tried the curry without the Ghoul soul. It was safe. Although Soma would have loathed testing it on other people, Naoki happened to have raided the fridge for leftovers one day. He did not die, so Soma presumed that it was safe.

After some testing, Soma found that while he was limited to curry and rice, he could put anything in there. Chicken, fish, shellfish, and pork were all fair game. He found that it was possible to put in things like milk or barbeque sauce in there, but it just didn't taste good.

At first, Soma ate the curry whenever he was hungry, just because it was free.

Of course, eating just something you like is a sure way to hate it. One day, Soma just found that he couldn't finish his plate. He had tried to exploit the 'any ingredient' loophole by making the plate produce things like dumplings and piroshky, but found that both were full of curry. Curry stopped tasting good to him, so he went back to buying stuff on the cheap.

From then on, Soma only used the soul to either give food to people who looked like they needed it, or when he was out of cash. The latter occurred depressingly often.

X

One day, Soma came back to his dorm to find it completely trashed. While he was really upset at the huge mess, he really had no idea who could have done this. So he just stripped his sheets, took out the garbage, and removed most of the blood (by licking it with the Succubus soul activated; waste not, want not). He decided to put off the rest until tomorrow.

When Kazuya came back from whatever he did, he asked Soma, "What the hel-heav-heck happened to our room?"

"Heck if I know," said Soma. "It was like this when I came back. Except, you know, slightly worse. I cleaned your bed for you."

Kazuya put down his laptop. "Do you have any idea who could have done this? Do you have any enemies?"

"I don't," said Soma. That was a lie. Soma's enemies could be divided into two general camps: those who wanted to kill Dracula and those who wanted to bring him back. The former generally did things like bless toilets and give him swirlies, and the latter did things like fill coffins or altars full of discount virgin's blood and force him to take a bath in them. Soma had once asked some cultists what they meant by 'discount' virgin's blood, and was treated to a lesson on the finer points of the female reproductive system. Both camps involved lots of chanting, and hot showers and scrubbing in the aftermath. But anyone in either category, if given access to Dracula's abode and enough time to completely ruin it, would most likely do something a bit more in line with their goals.

But it was really much easier to lie than to explain that to his programmer roommate who had likely never seen the inside of a pentagram.

Soma had no idea how wrong he was.

"And while I don't really get along with other people, I doubt that I've done anything to deserve this," said Kazuya. "It's probably Naoki's fault."

But when Naoki arrived, fired from his job, he said that he didn't know, either.

So Kazuya used his arcane hacker magic to hack into the security tapes, and found that Daisuke was the one who trashed their room.

"Want to go get revenge?" asked Naoki. "I know where he sleeps."

"Heck yeah," said Soma. "If he had just trashed your bed, that's fine. But he dragged me and Kazuya into this. Let's go."

"I'm not coming," announced Kazuya. "It's a pointless, silly cycle of revenge. Besides, someone has to do the cleaning."

The minute Soma and Naoki left the room, Kazuya typed in some lines into his computer. A small Brownie appeared. "Brownie, clean up the room," he commanded. "When you're done, you may help yourself to whatever leftovers you find in the fridge."

"Is there any of that curry left, Master?" asked the Brownie.

"I believe so," said Kazuya. "You really like curry that much?"

The Brownie nodded. "Just the curry your roommate makes, Master. It tastes like dark magic. Good source of Magnetite."

"Then don't eat any of my store," said Kazuya. Next time there was curry in the fridge, he was storing it in his computer. It's not like he was running low on Magnetite, but he didn't have any source to replenish it with, either.

Little did either of them know that the delicious dark magic taste was actually the evil power of Dracula permeating every corner of the curry. But then again, Dracula's reincarnation had no idea that he was rooming with one of the most powerful devil summoners to ever walk the earth.

X

"All right," said Naoki. "I know for a fact that Daisuke sleeps in that bunk up there. Don't ask how I know."

Soma did not want to know.

"All right. So what are you going to do to mess with him?" asked Naoki. "I was going to split his bed in two."

"I was planning on covering his sheets in curry," said Soma, making the plates appear from nowhere.

Naoki suddenly fixed Soma with an intense gaze. "When did you get that curry?" he asked completely seriously.

Soma was taken aback. Most people did not have very hard glares, try as they might. But for some reason, Naoki's death glare terrified him. As both a survivor of two separate hell castles and a man standing on the knife's edge of damnation, this was an achievement. Soma was no stranger to fear. Fear for his life, fear for the lives of others, fear for his sanity, and fear of harming the ones he loved were ever present.

The fear he felt in Naoki's presence was a rare sort. It was the primal fear of something completely beyond his scope of understanding. Soma had last felt it in the presence of Death. Chaos and Menace were powerful, but stemmed from almost the same source as Soma's powers. Chaos was familiar to Dracula, and familiar to him. Menace was formed from his souls, so of course he understood it. All demons were easy to understand once Soma dominated their souls. Except Death. Soma always got the impression that Death's soul wasn't really there; all that Soma had was just its power. As Soma held Naoki's gaze, he got the feeling that his roommate was something… other than what he knew. And powerful. And that terrified him.

Suddenly, Naoki's glare softened. Rather than shaking in his sneakers, Soma found that he was merely startled by his roommate's sudden change in mood. He was slightly embarrassed for being so afraid of the smaller boy. "I… uh… I hid it under my jacket?"

Naoki looked like he didn't believe him, but decided that there was no point in disbelieving him because he had no other way of knowing how the taller boy produced curry from thin air. "Well, doesn't matter. Let's go ruin some jerk's day!"

The duo proceeded to pretty much dismantle Daisuke's bed. As a peace offering, Soma left three plates of curry behind on the bedside table without Naoki noticing.

At least, that's what he thought. While Naoki after weeks of living in tight confinement with him pretty much knew that Soma was some kind of magician or something, he decided that he was going to let it slide. After all, if Soma knew that Naoki knew his secrets, Naoki would have to explain how and why he figured them out. That would most likely lead to an awkward talk about how Naoki was also one of the most powerful demons in existence.

The next day, Daisuke came into the showers half asleep and smelling like curry. No one dared ask why. Then he came to Soma's doorstep and told him that he'd stop pranking them if Soma gave him the recipe for the curry. Soma accepted his offer, with Kazuya's encouragement. Soma figured that even if the exact methods of preparation could not be replicated, Daisuke would at least be satisfied with the ingredient list.

While Daisuke kept his promise, he wasn't satisfied. Try as he might, Daisuke could never reproduce the evil magic flavor that Soma put in his curry.

X

"I know that this is a sacred gift and there are starving people everywhere, but I'm starting to hate the taste of curry," said Soma to Julius. "Thanks for treating me."

"Really, after setting you on fire several times, it's the least I can do," said Julius.

"Half of me wants to apologize for being rude to you, and the other half says that you kind of deserve it," said Soma. "But if you treat me once for every time you set me on fire on purpose, I'll apologize."

"I just hope that whoever's listening in on this conversation thinks that we're talking about video games," said Mina.

They ate their yakisoba. It was good yakisoba.

"Is it possible for you to make anything but curry appear?" asked Julius. "If we teamed up, we could probably survive a trek… wait, no. You can't drink Holy Water."

"Didn't we spend the last few hours establishing that?" said Mina dryly.

After they finished and paid, the trio returned to Julius's house. Leon's diary started getting more interesting now that he started talking about his knighthood. Soma started getting a headache when Leon described his senior knight Mathias Cronquvist, so he asked for a break.

"Do you think I can get dessert from my soul power?" asked Soma, switching to the Waiter Skeleton soul.

"As long as it's not curry flavored," said Julius.

Soma focused, and produced a cream pie. "Cool," he said. "But I wanted ice cream…"

Soma kept on making various flavors of cream pie appear from nothing. "Darn," he said. "Looks like I'm stuck on just cream pies." He focused. "Nope. Guess I can't use other desserts as ingredients."

"You can't put stuff on top like with the curry?" asked Mina.

"I guess not. Pity, pie with ice cream on top would taste better than curry with Jamaican Patty in it."

"Try adding cookie crumbs or something. Those go in cream pies all the time."

Soma focused. The next pie appeared out of nowhere, filled with Oreo bits. The next one contained gummy worms, and the next attempt produced one with raisins. "So it only works for small things?" He then tried for one containing miniature potstickers, but the pie was completely clear. "Only small things that generally go inside dessert, then."

Julius regarded the pies with a somber expression.

"Is something wrong?" asked Mina.

Julius picked up the Vampire Killer. "Back when I was chosen to kill Dracula, I was sent to America to meet the last wielder of the whip: a member of the Morris branch family, Jonathan Morris. Just so you know, normally only members of the Belmont clan can use the Vampire Killer. Anyone else who tries to use the whip to its full potential will have their life drained as they use it."

Soma nodded. "That explains quite a bit, actually."

"To make a long story short, to prove himself worthy of the whip and unlock its true potential, Jonathan had to fight against the whip's last user: Richter Belmont. The whip conjured up a magical projection of him to fight against Jonathan. Jonathan told me that it was the hardest battle he had ever fought. Richter was said to be the strongest member of the line."

Mina blinked. "Are you sure? I mean, I'm not saying that your ancestors are lying, but how could you possibly accurately compare the fighting ability of two or more people who hadn't even lived during the same time?"

"Dracula told me that right before our battle," said Julius. "He kept on comparing me to all the other Belmonts. He said that Richter had the most overwhelming power out of all of them. Happy?"

Mina accepted this.

Soma cut up the pie. "You know, if I could somehow access Dracula's memories without losing myself, I could probably confirm that."

"Don't take that risk," said Mina seriously. Soma nodded.

"As I was saying, Jonathan told me that Richter was the strongest opponent he ever fought. He said that he fought him hundreds of times, before he prepared the ultimate weapon."

"And that weapon was?" asked Mina.

"Cream pies."

There was a brief moment of silence. Soma looked at the pie, and carefully pushed it away from him.

"What?" said Mina and Soma in unison.

"Don't look at me, I didn't believe him at first, either," said Julius. "I thought he was going senile. He was over seventy and had his life artificially shortened."

"Yes, but cream pies?" said Soma. "What did he do, spike it with cyanide and pretend to make a peace offering?"

"The pies were an artifact much like my Holy Water," said Julius. "More of them appeared whenever he threw them."

"Oh, so was he a clown?" said Soma. "Did he throw balloon animals, too?"

"Apparently, the pies were affiliated with darkness, so it hurt for the holy manifestation to touch it," said Julius, annoyed.

"Yes, but in that case wouldn't it be easier to just throw pentangles or Satanic objects at him or something?" said Soma.

"Where are you going to get pentangles and Satanic objects from?" retorted Mina. "Although yes, cream pies seem like a horrible weapon to use against anyone."

"Soma threw _cats_ and _crows_ at me the first time we fought," said Julius. "Then again, he isn't the first. Maria Renard trained birds to throw at monsters. She fought alongside my ancestor Richter Belmont when they raided Castlevania."

Soma blinked. "That's just crazy. At least I have the excuse that it's the only thing the Blue Crow soul does. But making birds attack people? Wouldn't it be more useful to get a gun or a bow or something?"

"Wasn't trained for it. She was twelve at the time."

Mina gaped. "Twelve. Twelve!? How did the hell did her parents let her go into a monster infested castle built by the legions of hell?!"

"She was kidnapped," explained Julius. "Richter rescued her, but she refused to leave. She proved that she was strong enough, so he let her come with him."

"That seems really irresponsible," said Mina.

"Perhaps Richter figured that had he not allowed her to come, she would have gone with him anyways and might have gotten herself killed," said Julius. "She would have been safest with him. Although, given that Richter's diaries did say that she had powers beyond his, it might not have been that bad for her. Can I have a slice of that pie?"

Soma handed him a slice. "It's surprisingly good pie," said Soma. "I wonder what other kinds of cream pie there are. Is my power limited to the kinds that I've eaten before? There's banana, chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch… wait, DON'T EAT THAT PIE!"

Julius happened to have much better reflexes than Soma. He just froze and put the plate down. "You're right," he said. "I'm sixty percent Holy Water. Who knows what effects dark magical pies might have on me."

"For a second, I was tempted to just let you eat it, but then I realized that you don't have my absurd magical chair healing powers," said Soma. "How about you just touch it?"

It was very lucky that Soma had stopped Julius from eating the pie, because the second Julius's finger touched the pie, both burst into flames. Julius's finger produced bright blue flames, while the pie produced dark flames that looked like holes in space.

"Ow," said Julius, and he withdrew his finger. Both finger and pie stopped being on fire. "Thanks for warning me, Soma. Even if you were tempted to let an old man die from internal burning."

Mina whistled. "Given the explosive reaction, I'd say you're more like seventy percent Holy Water," she said. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," said Julius. "Do you think that will happen with the curry, too?"

As Soma made another plate of curry appear out of nowhere, Mina asked Julius, "Didn't we come here to help you archive?"

Having the curry burst into dark flames when Julius touched it tipped Soma off that his curry was also full of dark magic. "Makes total sense," he said. "My power is dark magic, ergo, anything made from the power is made from dark magic."

"I'm not sure that's how ergo works," said Julius.

"But why does Soma's food light you on fire when touching him doesn't?" asked Mina.

Soma shrugged. "Percentage of dark magic? I have a lot of it, but I'm mostly human. I guess the curry and pie is mostly dark magic."

"This reminds me of back when I was chosen to kill Dracula," said Julius. "Arikado gave me and my cousins a series of tests, including one that involved testing our immune systems. He wanted to see if we could eat the wall meat without dying."

"Your cousins?" asked Mina.

Julius nodded. "We were all members of the Belmont clan. Arikado had to pick one of us because…"

He took a deep breath. "It's a long story."

"We have time."

"You see, after my ancestor Richter recovered from possessed by the dark priest Shaft, he declared that every able bodied person in the family, regardless of gender, was to be trained in monster hunting," explained Julius. "Before him, the family only trained the eldest able bodied son to wield the Vampire Killer. He would focus on training all the time. It worked out fine for centuries. Most of the chosen were happy to get out of farm chores, and they understood the whip better than anyone. None of them failed against Dracula. It ended up backfiring on Richter. His grandfather Juste had been terrified of Dracula, so he started training his son and grandson at a very early age. What made it worse was that unlike his ancestors, Richter grew up in a relatively stable environment, and took peace for granted. He was also much stronger than his ancestors from the training he underwent (judging by what Dracula told me), so Dracula's castle didn't hold nearly as much terror for him. As you might imagine, once Dracula was dead, Richter realized that everything he worked for since he was a child had ended. He never would have brought Dracula back if it weren't for Shaft making him, but I can't imagine that he was very happy."

Both Soma and Mina remained silent. Mina hadn't had anything like that happen to her before, but Soma almost had. In a way, becoming Dracula would have destroyed everything he ever lived for. All of his life and his memories as Soma Cruz would be wiped away with his identity.

"Anyways, when Richter officially became head of the family, he said that he never wanted to have his descendants be unable to live a life outside of the battlefield again. He made everyone born into the family who wasn't crippled learn how to fight, so that one person wouldn't be singled out from the start like he had. All of them would learn a trade (although there were some layabouts). Whoever was the strongest would be the one to kill Dracula and would be considered the heir. Until then, they don't even touch the whip. This was also insurance if the chosen heir dies; there's at least one other person who can take his place with minimal extra training. Al…the person who saved Richter nearly killed him, which had never happened to a chosen heir. Richter realized the mortality of his clan."

"Did you just say that he taught the girls, too?" asked Mina. "How long ago was this?"

Julius nodded. "It was the eighteenth and nineteenth century, so Richter's proclamation was rather surprising. I don't imagine that Richter was completely free of the prejudices of the time, but I guess he thought that having more fighters, period, would have helped. Dracula raided his hometown and kidnapped four girls. He said that if that ever happened again, the girls saving themselves would be a load off on the heir. Besides, if the sons were killed off, the daughters could have continued the bloodline. If no sons were available, the daughters' husbands had to take the Belmont name. That's a tradition dating back to Simon Belmont, who only had daughters. His son-in-laws thought he was joking, but then found out that it was a bad idea to contradict the only person to kill Dracula _twice_."

"Do you think that he would have let any of the girls fight Dracula?" asked Mina. "If one of them turned out to be the strongest, I mean."

Julius shrugged. "I don't know; I'm not him, and we don't have the same ideas on gender roles. I assume that he assumed that the heir would be a boy, given that he wrote about how it would make the heir's job easier if girls were self sufficient. If I were in that position, it would make more sense to send a female heir instead of one of her weaker brothers. I wouldn't be very happy about it, but I doubt that I would be happy about sending any of my children or grandchildren into a death trap castle."

Julius cleared his throat. "That said, we had to give the whip to the Morris family, because of the prophecy and the fact that the whip didn't accept anyone until me. But even without the whip, we kept the tradition of training everyone. Arikado was the one who planned the attack on Castlevania. He needed a Belmont to use the Vampire Killer, so he gathered me and every fighter in my family together and tested us. All of my cousins, male and female, got a chance, but…"

"You scored the highest," said Soma.

"Obviously," said Julius. Not out of pride, but because of the simple fact that he was the one with the whip. "Most of the tests were straightforward, but… I have no idea why he asked for an essay about ditch digging. At least the health examination made sense."

"So what happened to your cousins?" asked Mina.

Julius shrugged. "Still alive. I visited them in Romania. Tearful reunion. Lots of nieces and nephews now. They're obligated to send me checks now and then, since as the wielder of the Vampire Killer I'm technically the head of the family. Now that I turn up back with the Vampire Killer and tell them about the promise I made to you, everyone's trying to train again after slacking off for decades."

He sighed. "Of course, the only one who actually _has_ been training is the one who went to work as an enforcer for the mob… go figure."

Soma blinked. "I would try to comfort you by offering you more curry or pie… but that might kill you. And not because of the fat or sugar."

Mina looked at the table full of experimental pies. "I think that this is more than either of us can eat. There's an orphanage down the road; want to do a bake sale drive?"

TO BE CONTINUED!

I do admit that I did end up downplaying Maria's achievements. I say that Richter was the one who killed Dracula, so that does take Maria's cred down a notch. Having her travel with Richter insinuates that he protected her… but also insinuates that he couldn't have made it without her. But really, surviving a hell castle at the age of freaking _twelve_ does warrant some acknowledgement. Even if she was protected… Escort Missions, anyone?

And yeah, I did shoehorn my headcanon. I almost added that one reason why Richter was upset about Dracula's defeat was because he was rich and didn't have to do an honest day's work in his life, so he couldn't fall back on the work he did before. But it just made him sound like a brat. Besides, he probably wouldn't be able to settle down as a farmer even if he did work the land before.

The whole thing about Richter training girls was added because it's easier to play as Maria than him. I figured that he'd be the one to start training girls became he's the one who was outclassed by one. Unless I'm mistaken, Sypha is the only other woman who fought alongside a Belmont, and she founded her own clan. Somehow after marrying Trevor. Originally, I said that Richter knew that Maria was fine without him so girls weren't weaker, but then I realized that Maria has magical powers that haven't been replicated by anyone else. It's easier for him to assume that she survived because of her powers instead of shifting his worldview. I ended up giving alternate reasons, but that's where it all stemmed from. Besides, if the tradition of training everyone started with Trevor, then there would probably be more (i.e. at least one who hasn't been taken out of canon) female Belmonts.


	5. Chapter 5: Succubus

I'm not doing every single soul, because not every single soul has a use. I doubt that Soma would be stupid enough to try to the Flame Demon soul to make hamburgers… or would he? Plus, some of them are redundant.

Kazuya is the hero of Shin Megami Tensei I, and Naoki (aka the Demi Fiend) is the protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.

By the way… I do not intend to make any sort of political statement with the whole 'Soma is being watched' thing.

Succubus

While the Succubus soul was incredibly useful in both Castlevania and Celia's castle, Soma rarely found a use for it outside of it. The power to heal by drinking the blood of his enemies was only really useful when Soma had actual enemies. While for some strange reason it worked on candles and statues, it was often hard to explain to strangers why he was eating them. They usually assumed that he was on drugs.

Soma learned that souls that healed his wounds also stopped whatever was hurting him at the moment; for example, if he used the Persephone magic vacuum while drunk or poisoned, he would become sober. Soma used the Ouija Table soul whenever he was suffering from anything, from things like allergy attacks to being set on fire to being infected with a cold. He hadn't tested anything out with drowning, because Julius's bath wasn't big enough to hold a chair and no one wanted to sneak into the local high school at night and drop a chair into the pool.

Ninety percent of the time, the Ouija Table soul was more useful than the Succubus soul. Most places had chairs all over the place. Very few places had enough blood for Soma to actually use lying around. At least, very few places had enough blood for Soma to just take without being a) caught by passerby or b) chased off by nurses or morticians.

Neither Julius nor Mina wanted to test the limits of the Succubus soul. It didn't really have as many applications as the Ghoul soul, and didn't bring up nearly as many questions as the Paranoia soul. The only question they had was whether diseased blood would heal him, to which Soma pointed out that he drank the blood of _zombies_ without trouble. Besides, testing was impractical. As strong as they were, repeatedly taking enough blood for experimentation would not be safe. None of them really wanted to trick a hospital into giving them blood bags, nor rob blood banks. Mina had suggested using… 'discount' virgin's blood, but despite the fact that it was plentiful when it came and didn't hurt her at all, Soma flatly refused. [1]

But the Succubus soul came in handy for the ten percent situations.

Like when he was locked in a dungeon on his birthday by religious fanatics and chained to a wall far away from any chair. He had been badly injured by foot soldiers with holy artifacts before being imprisoned. Some bored cultists tried to mock and torture him by baking a birthday cake with holy water, and then shoving a piece with a lit prayer candle into his mouth. Soma had told them that baking birthday cakes with holy stuff was probably sacrilegious (Julius had done the same for over thirty years, but it wasn't as if he declared himself to be the Paragon of Holiness like the leader did), which made them angry. It was a gamble, but using the Ghoul soul while eating/drinking holy water nullified the effects (Soma learned from Julius's experiments that food cooked with Holy Water still hurt him to a lesser extent even if all the water evaporated), and Soma eating the candle with the Succubus soul gave him the energy to grab a cultist with his legs and drink his blood. From there, he managed to break out of the dungeon and call the cops. It wasn't much fun at the time, but he told Mina that it was the most exciting birthday he ever had.

Or the first time he was kidnapped by cultists.

They got him on the way back from the bathroom one night. He was half asleep and not wearing his magical Longcoat of Holding. One of them had snuck behind him and held a chloroform rag to his nose, rolled him up into a rug, and then stuffed him into a van.

Soma woke up in someone's basement. It looked like a standard issue apartment basement, except someone had stuffed a whole bunch of dark magical paraphernalia in there. There was a goat skull, black candles that gave off acrid smoke, a few white ones that dribbled, a stuffed alligator (or was it a crocodile?), various pentangles, upside down crosses, and, of course, a bath of virgin's blood (while most of Dracula's memories faded away after killing Chaos, the vampric ability to determine the blood type, age, and virginity status of blood remained). Soma was placed inside of an open coffin at the center of a chalk pentagram.

Around him, men in dark cloaks chanted mystic prunes and droned words that Soma recognized as random Periodic Table elements and US state capitals. Great. Kidnapped by American geography bee cultists.

"Now, brothers!" the head cultist announced in English. Then he started saying a lot of drabble that Soma couldn't quite understand or translate while high. He recognized the word 'Dracula' several times.

Soma looked around. There were candles on top of his—the coffin. Those qualified as drinkable, weirdly enough. Even though he was groggy, he was able to jerk up and take a large bite out of the candle nearest to his head. The nausea cleared up a little bit.

The high priest stopped. He said something that Soma guessed was, "What just happened? You there, do your job! Fix it!" judging by his tone.

The candle was replaced and relit.

Soma bit that candle.

Then it was replaced.

 _Come on, someone rescue me_ , thought Soma as he lost his dignity chewing on candle wax. _I didn't allow my privacy to be invaded for nothing._

Soma's thoughts warrant some explanation.

Soma knew that after Celia, more people would try to resurrect Dracula. While Julius was there to keep his promise, Soma preferred not to die if he could help it. So he had worked out some arrangements with Arikado's Agency of Supernatural Investigation.

At least one agent was supposed to watch Soma at all times. Well, almost all times. For the comfort of both parties, Soma was allowed to be on his own in the bathroom and other such areas.

Soma had met with the spies when he requested to be monitored. Arikado told Soma that Soma's status as Dracula's reincarnation was a secret; the Agency's file on him made him out to be just someone with inexplicable special abilities. The monitoring was being passed off as a training exercise; the spies were all greenhorn agents and Soma was a prospective one, so it would be an opportunity for both parties to gain experience. The excuses that Arikado gave to the agents about why Soma was singled out as their target were because a) he consented, b) his actions were unclassified and boring enough to make watching a real chore, and c) various cults wanted his powers for themselves (although Arkiado did not specify the nature of their wants). If the spies somehow found out about Soma being Dracula, they would be promoted.

The training became sort of like a game. Every week, when Soma came to train with the Agency, he would meet with the other spies. Soma would record how many times he noticed each spy and what circumstances led him to him (all of the spies were male, for the comfort and relief of both parties), and the spies would answer questions on what Soma was doing. If the number of times Soma saw all of the spies times two exceeded the number of questions that the spies got right, then he won and they all had to treat him to ice cream or dinner. In the case of vice versa, then the Agency gave them a small bonus that they used for team dessert (as a starving student, it wasn't fair to make Soma pay for fourteen people. Besides, it was the Agency's incentive for them to train better).

Soma had also bribed all of them with evil curry made from black magic to not tell Arikado about his experiments. They agreed, but Soma couldn't tell if they had in fact told Arikado and he didn't care.

So when Soma was abducted from his dorm in the middle of the night, someone was supposed to be watching him.

Except for a freak twist of fate.

X

Hikaru's day had not been very good for him, and it was about to get worse.

His shift was between midnight and noon on Mondays. Hikaru hated Mondays. He hated getting up super early and then spending the first hours of his work week monitoring a guy who did practically nothing. Half of the time the kid was either sleeping or in class or sleeping in class.

Earlier that Sunday, Hikaru had spent several hours attacking the bane of every government organization: paperwork. His deadline was Tuesday, and he was going to be too tired after his shift to work on it. Unfortunately, it is a fundamental law of the universe well known to every student that everything takes longer the closer the deadline. The paperwork started eating into his sleep time; it was so bad that Saitou stole his laptop and told him to go to bed.

Ultimately, Hikaru brought his phone along with him and typed away as he watched the Ultimate Evil sleep like a baby. Hikaru thought that no one else had hated this kid more than he did at the moment. If only he knew…

Hikaru was so distracted by his typing and thoughts that he dropped his wallet from the roof he was perched on.

He looked down. The kid wasn't going anywhere. If Hikaru didn't get his wallet back now, it would probably be taken by thieves.

So Hikaru climbed down the fire escape, and safely stowed his wallet away in his jacket.

There was someone waiting for him when he got back. Or rather, some _thing_. Hikaru could barely make out a humanoid figure in the darkness. Before he could tell what it was, it grabbed him by the throat. "Who are you?" it hissed.

Despite his inexperience, Hikaru was still a trained member of a supernatural spy organization. He managed to twist his hand to his belt and stab the creature with his knife.

It didn't even flinch. It just took it out of its chest and put it in its pocket. There wasn't even a mark.

"What the hell are you!?" Hikaru gasped.

"Who sent you?" it asked Hikaru. "You're too weak to be an assassin. A spy? Your knife is blessed with holy power. It's not strong, so…"

"I'm not telling you anything, monster!" said Hikaru.

"Are you sure?" it asked. It started searching Hikaru's pockets with its free hand. "Is this your wallet? Hikaru Kuroba. Score! Four thousand yen!"

"Awa-give that back!"

"No," he said. "Unless you tell me who sent you."

Hikaru glared at the creature. At least, he tried to. Most people don't have very hard glares, and he wasn't sure if the creature could see his face (it could, actually). He wasn't even sure if he was glaring at its eyes (he was actually glaring about six inches above where its head was). "If you kill me, my organization will hunt you down."

"I'd like to see them tr… wait a tick."

The creature gently put Hikaru down. "So your organization is NOT currently trying to kill me? You weren't sent here to spy on me?"

"What?" Hikaru wasn't really able to think straight, given that he was being suffocated a second ago.

"You said that your organization _will_ hunt me down. Does that mean that if I let you go, you won't go after me? I don't think I've done anything to attract attention… except maybe break a bathroom wall and someone's bed."

Hikaru froze. "I… that depends."

"Wait… you don't have any idea who I am."

The creature laughed bitterly. "You have no idea who or what I am. Go-Luci-WOW I'm paranoid."

Hikaru wasn't quite sure how to react in this situation. He cleared his throat. "I am a member of the-"

"Good night. Thanks for the cash."

The creature hopped to the next rooftop.

Then, as if by some deliberation, it hopped back. "Oh, and by the way… I haven't done anything. So please don't tell your organization about me."

"What, besides choke me?"

"Except for that," it said. "But you guys were spying on me. Well, spying on someone. I can call the cops on you."

Hikaru chose not to respond. Telling someone that their secret organization was government based and probably wouldn't be troubled by the police would be a very stupid move. Then again, being exposed by the police would be a huge mess, even if it did get covered up.

"And I could always kill you," added the creature. "I wouldn't be very happy about it, and I would get exposed even more… but hey, you'd be dead. And I'd have to kill even more people, including more members of your organization and any family members who want revenge, which neither of us would be very happy about. So don't tell on me?"

"Fine then," said Hikaru. "I won't tell on you unless I find that you're up to something."

The creature shrugged. "Fair enough. I wouldn't expect you to leave me alone if you thought I was killing people."

Then the creature vanished.

Ten minutes later, Hikaru found out that the demon had kept his four thousand yen. At least he was nice enough to give back the knife.

An hour later, a very angry white bat fluttered to his rooftop and spat fire at him. Hikaru dropped his phone. "Hey!" he swiped at the bat with his knife, but the bat grabbed his arm and transformed into his very angry stalkee.

"I thought you were supposed to be watching me," said Soma Cruz. Hikaru couldn't see him in the darkness, but he recognized his voice. Except never before had Soma spoken in such a chilling tone.

Something dripped from Soma's mouth onto Hikaru's jacket. Hikaru chose to ignore it in favor of the guy known to swing swords with giant rocks stuck to them. "So you… weren't taking a really long bathroom break?"

"I was kidnapped, you idiot!" he said. "How did you not notice?!"

Hikaru gaped. "Oh… um…"

"Never mind. I'll talk to you later. Too tired. Why did this have to happen on a school night…?"

Soma let go of Hikaru and jumped off the roof. He turned into a bat in midair and flew off.

Hikaru sat down. There were only two coherent thoughts in his head. "Am I going to get fired for this?" and "How did he find me here, anyways?"

Then he looked down at the sleeve of his jacket. From the glow of his phone, he could clearly tell that the liquid that dripped from Soma's mouth was blood.

X

 _All right, so if no one's going to rescue me, I'm going to have to do this myself._

When the high priest got fed up with sending a grunt to fix the candles, he sauntered over to the coffin and fixed it himself.

At least, he tried to. As soon as the cultist leaned over the coffin, Soma jumped up and grabbed him. Then, still deprived of a chair to heal himself upon, he drank his blood to make himself feel better.

This got the cultists excited. Sure, their leader was probably dead (he wasn't), but they had gotten what they wanted. Their master was once more…

"I am not brought back!" shouted Soma in English. He wasn't very good at English. "I am not Dracula!"

Then he activated the Black Panther soul and ran straight for the door, throwing cultists and chairs aside in his wake.

At least, where he thought the door was. It turned out to be a storage closet. His attempt at drama failed, Soma grabbed a broom and ran into an elevator.

Half the cult tried to come in with him, but Soma whacked them with the broom and sucked their blood. Then he realized that the doors were designed to not close if there was anything between them, so he ran to the other end of the room to see if the exit was there.

Soma then tried to call the Agency, but remembered that he did not usually carry his phone with him in his pajamas.

And then Soma found the fire exit in bright red characters. "Even crazy cultists care about fire safety, I guess."

Soma sprinted up the steps, thinking of Julius's description of a house without stairs with longing.

Soma kicked down the fire escape door once he got to the ground floor. It led to an alleyway. "Now then… should I call the Agency, or just go back to the dorm and then call them? Oh, wait… I don't have a phone."

In the distance, Soma heard cultists clamoring. So he activated the Giant Bat (while Bat Company did the same thing, using the latter was too complex. Soma liked using the complex souls that actually could communicate back with him, but a flock of bats was the wrong kind of complex) soul and flew to the rooftops. From there, he could see generally where his dorm was, so he just flew there. Using the bat's echolocation, he clearly saw Hikaru on the rooftop. Hopefully, the agent would be more motivated to do his job now that it was his fault Soma was kidnapped.

The newbie agents would disappoint him many times afterward.

When he got back to the dorm, Soma took another shower and washed his mouth out. Hopefully, people would think that he just had bloody gums and wouldn't come to the conclusion that he was Count Dracula.

It was only after he called the Agency that he found that he had no idea where the cult was based.

X

The next day, Kazuya had to wake up both Soma and Naoki. "Get up," he said. "Your alarm clocks went off ten minutes ago."

"Five more minutes…" said Soma.

Kazuya sighed. "If I didn't do this, you would yell at me for not waking you up earlier. If you get up in the next thirty seconds, I'll make pancakes."

That was enough for them. "With strawberry syrup?" asked Naoki.

"And maple," said Kazuya. "Now it's twenty. Get up and get dressed, or you'll have to buy your own breakfast."

Both of them stretched and started getting dressed.

"How come you're so tired today?" asked Kazuya. "You usually get up really quickly, Naoki. I know you're a night owl, Soma, but you got in early last night."

"I had to get up and go do something," both late sleepers said in unison. "And then I couldn't fall back asleep."

They looked at each other. Then Kazuya made pancakes.

"So, what did you have to get up to do, Soma?" asked Naoki.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Soma. It was one thing to be kidnapped. Another to realize that he had done nothing useful in the process. "You?"

"Same," said Naoki. "Too awkward for pancake conversation. Got up, couldn't fall back asleep. You know."

Naoki Kashima did not survive a hellish postapocalyptic landscape without a healthy level of paranoia. Every time he woke up for the slightest reason, it was hard for him to fall back asleep. He also did not become a half demon abomination without having his senses being sharpened beyond human understanding.

So while it took a while for him to notice the pattern of over a dozen different people watching his dorm almost all the time, once he figured it out…

X

As it turned out, Soma _had_ done something useful on the night he was kidnapped. The ruckus that the cultists made when Soma escaped woke up Julius. Why?

It was his apartment building they were holding their ritual in.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] 'Discount' virgin's blood: It's a euphemism for a certain kind of blood. It's detailed in my story, 'What do you mean by "Discount" Virgin's Blood?'

Originally, the spy's name was Akira. But then I realized that I'd be putting an Akira and Arikado in the same story. Then it was Kenji, but then there would be Kenji and Kazuya. I have a rule that states that if my story has less than 24 named characters, none of them should have names that start with the same letter unless a) they're really minor characters, b) it's a plot point, or c) it's a fanfiction of a story that doesn't follow that rule or a crossover. If it's more than 24 characters, then at least don't have them with similar names.


	6. Chapter 6: Ghost

I've been avoiding describing how the college works because I've never been to a Japanese college. So if I get anything wrong, that's why.

Ghost

While summoning ghosts to attack was useful in combat, expelling Soma's soul from his body was not (except for one time). It wasn't even that useful outside of combat. It had exactly three good uses. Well, four. Fine. It was useful, but for all the wrong reasons.

The first thing Soma tried to use the Ghost soul for was cheating on a test.

He just propped his body up so that it looked like he was hunched over his paper, and then separated his soul from his body. The soul let him 'see' objects and people as usual (except for things or people with magic), so he could copy the answers off of lots of different people. It would be much harder to get caught that way; his answers wouldn't be identical to any one other person.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for his academic integrity record), Soma hadn't properly propped up his body. Soma's soulless body collapsed onto the floor the second his strength left it. The professor flatly told him to go to the hospital and take the test when he recovered. As it turned out, Soma had gotten a concussion from falling on his head.

"It's weird, huh?" Soma had said to Julius the next day. "I've been stabbed, burned, electrocuted, dissolved, whipped by you, been set on fire by my friend, dropped from the top of a tower, shot with guns and laser beams, and now falling from a desk gets me a trip to the hospital? Jeez."

Julius was just worried. "What happened to you?" he asked. "Do you have any history of fainting? Anemia? Have you been eating properly? I thought you were off the curry."

Soma shook his head. "No, I was just…" Soma felt the blush creeping over his face. "Julius I'm sorry I tried cheating on the test with my souls and I won't do it again!"

Soma wasn't lying. He found the idea of the Agency or his parents finding out that he faked a grade too unnerving to try cheating again. It was weird how even though he faced abominations such as Legion and Menace, things beyond his understand like Death, and the idea that he could become Dracula again and resume his bloodsoaked reign of terror at a moment's notice, Soma was still afraid of disappointing other people.

Soma had wanted to use the Ouija Table soul to fix the concussion instantly, but Julius told him to wait. "Lots of people know you hit your head pretty badly," he said. "If they see that you're fine the next day, they'll think something's up. They might not think that you're actually the reincarnation of the Dark Lord, but if I were them I would think that you tricked the doctors into letting you out. Wait a few days. If it gets really bad, fix it right away."

"But I'll miss class!" said Soma.

"Consider it punishment for trying to cheat," said Julius.

Kazuya and Naoki had given him their notes, sympathy, and cookies. They were chocolate. The cookies. Not the notes or the sympathy.

X

After spending too much time in Castlevania's Inner Quarters and having hot monster girls trying to kill him, Soma was put off peeping on girls.

Soma, however, in the name of science (yeah right) had come up with reasons why it was impractical to peep. The Ghost soul had horrendous range. He hit a wall if he tried to exceed it. If someone moved his body while he was out, then his soul was dragged along with it.

The girl's locker rooms didn't work because there were no places in any of the sports buildings where Soma could safely store his body without some well meaning person picking it up. It was a good thing that his body still had a pulse, because he felt like at least one person would call an ambulance or try to dump it in a trash can or the ocean. You really couldn't always depend on Bystander Syndrome.

It was too easy to leave his body to drown or overheat in the baths. Even though Soma had the Rahab soul, which made it impossible for him to drown (something that Soma had conveniently forgotten before trying to see if he could survive sitting in a chair at the bottom of a swimming pool; the thought of drowning hardly ever occurred to someone who never went to the pool unless he had to), Soma's monster souls were stored inside his own soul. So his body, deprived of the evil magic of a giant dead fish, could drown if Soma left it in the water. And if his well meaning roommates dragged him out of the water before his soul could be permanently nomadic, they would drag him to the hospital and away from the girls' side.

Also, Soma's dorm was guys only. So he couldn't just slip through the floor to watch girls changing.

X

The Ghost soul pretty much had only one combat use. Technically, it didn't even count as a 'use'. As Dracula's reincarnation, Soma was hurt by holy or blessed objects. But despite that fact, Soma himself was not a vampire.

After an incident that involved someone pulling Soma's limp body onto a blessed crucifix (it wasn't enough to have something in the shape of a cross; if anything shaped like such a common geometric figure affected him, then Soma wouldn't even be able to enter graveyards or walk in front of four pane windows) while his soul was distracted cooing over how cute ducklings were without scaring them with his body, Soma found that blessed objects didn't hurt him as long as his soul was out. "My body's normal, my soul isn't?" he said to Mina.

"That's good to know," she said. "Does your soul get injured if it touches holy stuff?"

"I don't think so," said Soma. "I've never tried."

It turned out that whenever his soul touched a holy object, the object would try to destroy him. The objects rarely stood a chance against Soma's power and that of all the souls shoved into him, so they generally exploded or just lost their power. Neutralizing holy power sapped his energy, but it was better than dying. Holy objects in large quantities were dangerous, as Dracula and every monster that ever faced a Belmont (especially Richter and his Hydro Storm or Thousand Blades) could attest. In the event where the object was stronger than him… well, Soma didn't want to find that out. Sure, no one holy object was able to take out Dracula just by flashing it in front of him, but Soma didn't have most of Dracula's power.

There was exactly one time when the knowledge that holy objects didn't hurt his body when his soul wasn't inside came in handy.

Julius had unearthed one of Richter's diaries, one that detailed his 'Item Crashes' and how to use them. Julius had spent several days trying to figure out how to use the Thousand Blades without destroying his wrists or the knife his family had lent him and just couldn't figure out how to fight with a house key, but managed to perform Richter's infamous Hydro Storm rather well.

So when Julius, Soma, and Mina were attacked by a pack of demonic rats in an alley one night after going for dinner, Julius was prepared. "Hydro Storm!"

Unfortunately, Soma was right next to him. Friendly fire was a huge issue with rains of magic fire water. "Damn it, Julius! That really hurts!"

"Er… sorry."

"Never mind, there's another wave coming at us," Soma said as he shook the flames off of his coat. "Do it again before we catch plague or something."

"But-"

"He'll be fine," insisted Mina. "I'll explain later."

Julius looked skeptical, but ultimately judged that if both the victim and his girlfriend didn't mind being set on fire, it was probably all right. He picked up the bottle and prepared to cast again.

Soma grabbed one of the walls and disconnected body and soul. His spirit passed through the wall, leaving the rain of Holy Water to harmlessly land on his limp body. The rats died in a wave of holy fire.

"Don't worry, Julius, it's just the Ghost soul," Soma heard Mina. "If he's out of his body, Holy Water doesn't hurt him."

"Oh. Okay then."

Soma came back to his body. "Yeah. I'd use my souls to kill them, except they're all either short range or super flashy and destructive. Hydro Storm is our best bet; it kills them all and doesn't leave a trace."

Unfortunately, the rats kept on coming. And no one had thought to bring an umbrella. So Julius had to keep using Hydro Storm every time a wave turned up, leaving Mina to drag Soma's body all the way home.

X

The next thing Soma tried to do with the Ghost soul was cram in extra studying. "If I separate my body and soul for a while, my body is sleeping, right?" he told Mina. "So I can leave my body, have a bat turn the pages when I want it to, and spend the whole night reading."

Mina was unconvinced. "Your mind needs to rest as much as your body does," she said. "If you spent all of tonight studying, you'd still have to go to class the next day. You'd have over thirty hours of nonstop stimulation. Do it on a Saturday night; that way if anything goes wrong, you can sleep through Sunday with no classes."

Soma took Mina's advice and waited until Saturday. He pretended to go to sleep, but tented his blankets to make room for the bat to flip the textbooks. His roommates wouldn't hear the paper flipping with the blanket as a damper. The soul world didn't depend on light, so Soma didn't need a flashlight. The bat was very excitable and messed up the pages just by turning them, but Soma was just glad that it didn't poop all over his sheets. Could summoned animals poop?

Soma read through a lot of the book, but he wasn't sure if he memorized anything.

That Sunday, Soma found that Mina was right. Soma felt horrible in some implacable way. Rather than go out for lunch with Kazuya and Naoki, Soma stayed home. He tried playing video games, but the flashing lights annoyed him. Listening to music and having a conversation with anyone wore him out. He wasn't hungry. Even reading was too much for him. Eventually, he gave up and went to bed early.

X

On highly specific occasions, the Ghost soul really came in handy. Just for all the wrong reasons.

The ability to faint on command was ironically more useful than the intended use of soul separation.

Once, Soma got roped into playing a corpse in a play. Mina was in it as the comic relief. Soma faked being stabbed (hard for someone whose instincts screamed at him to duck and slash) and fell to the ground normally before expelling his soul. He had learned his lesson about separating his soul while sitting in an unstable position or standing from the cheating incident, and from then on made sure that he was lying down before using the Ghost soul. Unless circumstances demanded otherwise, of course. Soma then watched the rest of the scene from outside his body, and returned to his body when he was supposed to go offstage. While the cast members were impressed by Soma's ability to play dead for ten minutes, the critics panned the performance and said that the play's greatest weakness was the fact that the corpse was clearly laughing. Also, the comic relief girl sucked. After the cast growled over how theater critics flamed shows for the slightest detail, Soma jokingly asked them if they wanted him to mail them a 'more realistic' corpse.

It was creepy how the other members looked as if they were seriously considering taking him up on his offer.

Another time, Soma had to get his blood taken for a test because there was some blood borne disease going around. For someone who had been stabbed more times than most people did pull ups in a lifetime, it was rather odd that he was so apprehensive. "It probably had something to do with being a vampire," he later told Mina. "I'm supposed to drink blood, not let it out."

"No, I think you just hate shots," said Mina.

"Well, that too." Soma sighed.

So when Soma went to the clinic, he asked to have his blood taken lying down. He closed his eyes and let his soul go when the needle pricked him. Soma wasn't sure whether it was legal to take the blood of an unconscious person, even with consent, but the nurse either didn't know or didn't notice.

It turned out that Soma was not infected. According to Julius, one of the vampire's lesser known powers was immunity to blood borne diseases. Whether it was because of his evil monstrous powers or just lack of exposure, Soma was healthy.

X

The most useful thing that the Ghost soul did, Soma learned with Mina and Julius. They decided that as interesting as Soma's powers were, Julius still wanted to get the archiving done with. Soma hadn't entirely recovered from his concussion, but he said that he could still help. "If it's just my brain, I can still use the Ghost soul to read," he said. "It's not my body that's reading it. I'll get a bat to do the typing. Just turn the page when it taps you on the shoulder; I don't trust a bat with a really old book."

Mina thought this over. "This will probably work. All night studying didn't work because of overstimulation, but we're doing this at a time when it is normal for you to be awake. It'll be a bit lonely without you reading the stuff out loud every thirty seconds, though."

"But you know I'm here," said Soma. Then he said quickly, "I mean, I can still hear other people. Give me a shout if you need help."

Soma used the Ghost soul.

"Hello, Mr. Cruz. I've been watching you for a long time, but I regret that we've never had the chance to meet."

If Soma still had a body, he would have choked. Sitting on the couch, right next to Julius, was a ghost.

Unlike most of the ghosts Soma had encountered, this one looked like a human. Ghosts in Dracula's castle looked more like Yoshi Skeletons (Soma had no idea why he made that association), while the ones in Celia's castle were more like blobs. This one appeared as a man not much older than Soma. Soma knew he was a ghost because his mind processed him as looking transparent.

When stripped of his eyes and forced to 'see' through his 'inner eye', Soma found that the soul world didn't look that different—but it also seemed as if the user friendliness was his powers deliberately trying to process the real form of the soul world into something that would make sense to him. It looked more like augmented reality than a completely different plane, in that most things looked and worked exactly as he expected they would. Ghosts were transparent (but in color). Objects still appeared even if they didn't have souls; if they contained souls, they showed a transparent image of that monster. Living people looked the same in general, but people with powers had some kind of aura indicating what kind of power they had. Mina's aura was a warm one befitting someone who primarily used healing magic, and Julius's… well, Julius's was hard to read because of the sheer amount of Holy Water he had consumed over the last few decades. It was impossible to judge how much was Julius's original powers and where the Holy Water began.

Now that he could see Julius's aura, Soma could appreciate exactly how much the Holy Water had changed Julius's body. Most Holy Water containers came in pints; Julius had _gallons_ in him. Holy Water only hurt dark creatures if it touched them, but in the soul world it was different. Without their bodies to act as buffers between Julius's light and Soma's cursed soul, Soma found himself putting up a barrier just to neutralize the holy power. Despite the holiness that should have been painful to any bodiless creature of darkness, the ghost seemed to insist on sitting right next to Julius.

Weirder still, the ghost was _holding_ the Vampire Killer. Julius kept it on his belt at all possible times, and the ghost curled its fingers around it. The Vampire Killer, bane of dark creatures and the undead. And the ghost was holding it like how someone would hold hands with a dying friend. _And it wasn't burning him_. Soma got burned whenever he brushed against the whip.

Neither Mina nor Julius appeared to acknowledge the ghost. Strange, considering that one was a miko and the other was the world's strongest vampire hunter.

The ghost's expression was… well, a mix. Soma wasn't exactly an expert on reading other people's expressions, but for some reason it was easier with this one. Maybe it was because it was a ghost? It—no, he—seemed eager, anxious, and nervous. It was much like how Soma imagined a dirty faced farm youth giving his childhood friend a bundle of daisies with the dirt still on and telling her that he picked them for her, before blushing and telling her that he had to go muck out the pigpen.

The weirdest thing was? He looked exactly like how Soma imagined Leon Belmont.

TO BE CONTINUED!


	7. Chapter 7: Leon

I know Lord of Shadows and Judgment are both sore points for fans, but I watched a video of LoS. That night, I had a dream where I was LoS Dracula. For some reason Dracula was in a cold iron prison that he couldn't get out of. He was apparently inside a building with a forest inside. Then LoS Alucard turned up and said that Dracula needed to get out because Alucard was going hunting with his friends inside the building they were in and Dracula being there would embarrass him. Alucard was wearing a tartan hat and had a gun. So somehow Dracula got out of that prison and started wandering around the city. There was a little girl that he picked up and carried around with him and tried to protect for some reason. The dream ended when he went to McDonalds and wanted to buy a Bacon Churro and a hotcake, and maybe an Oreo Blizzard. He was trying to pay for them without using a credit card (he didn't have one) and under a fake name. For some reason, even though I was Dracula, I was trying to avoid using any names that were similar to my real one, and at first I wrote my actual signature. It's probably because I don't know cursive. The thought never occurred to me that you don't need to give your name to pay for stuff.

The rest of the dream delved into swim teams, the fact that Terra in Final Fantasy VI really did want to help the Returners, and my love for climbing ropes.

The headcanon about Leon's soul and the Vampire Killer was cooked up alongside LuciferXIII Trollkaiger Green.

Not many wacky antics this time. More next chapter!

Wow, this chapter really needed a lot of corrections. Mostly because I made up so much stuff. Here's from most important to least important.

In my first version, I said that Leon could not enter Castlevania because anything that dies in there becomes corrupted and taken over by the castle. The idea came from the description of the Ghost enemy, which said that it was doomed the wander the castle forever. However, I forgot about Wind, who clearly is sentient and not corrupted. So in my next draft, I said that Leon's spirit was so heavily aligned with light that he was weak against Castlevania's dark magic. Had he entered, his energy would be sapped away, leaving him paralyzed and eventually found and Dominated by Dracula. This was my explanation for why the Valkyries and Erinys enemies work for Dracula. But then Heika said that Wind was not corrupted because he cast a spell on himself before he died. I haven't played PoR, so I looked over the script to check. Now I changed it back to something like the original, ironically enough.

I also made a mistake with Leon's descendants. I said that Trevor was Leon's great-great-grandson; if that's the case, then there are not enough generations to bridge a 400 year gap. I also said that Leon's granddaughter was named Sonia, but I also said that Trevor's mother was Sonia (and that contradicts the great-great-grandson part, unless there was some funny business in the family tree). So now Leon's granddaughter is So _f_ ia and his great-great-grandson is Gordon.

Other minor mistakes include saying that Juste killed Dracula (he killed his shade), Leon sometimes slipping and calling Dracula by his chosen name and not Mathias, and Soma saying that Mina's parents sealed Castlevania (it's not impossible, but it's more likely that it was her grandparents).

Leon

"Um… hi?" said Soma. "Nice to meet you?"

"Do you recognize me?" asked the ghost.

"Are you… by any chance, Leon Belmont?"

The ghost looked apprehensive at first, but then gave a bright smile. "Well, I guess you don't remember me. I am Leon, yes, but judging by your reaction, you don't know me. I'm very happy to meet you, Mr. Cruz. I would offer you some tea, but I can't make any."

Leon held out his hand. Soma took it gingerly. "Um… what exactly is going on?" asked Soma. Soma's 'Dracula knows this but I don't' sense was tingling like crazy. Leon's diary didn't have a single picture of its owner, but the second he saw the ghost in front of him, he knew him to be Leon. Okay, the diary did have pictures. But Leon was a terrible artist.

Leon cleared his throat, a gesture that was pointless for a spirit but probably retained out of habit. "As you probably know, I am Julius's ancestor."

"And I've been reading your diary for the past several weeks," said Soma.

"And you have been reading my diary," confirmed Leon. "I've been here since Julius moved in."

Soma felt a blush creeping up his face. It was one thing to read the diary of some long dead knight. It was another to be sitting right in front of him as his friends were picking apart the phrases. Not to mention that he was probably right there when they were laughing about the horrible poetry and the time he slipped on horse poop in the stables.

"I don't mind, really," said Leon, as if he were reading Soma's thoughts. "I'm actually quite flattered that you would spend so much time trying to translate it. And yes, the poems were rather poor."

"But what are you doing here?" asked Soma, trying to avoid the subject of Leon's misspelled poetry. "Aren't you…?"

"Dead?" offered Leon.

"Romanian," said Soma. "Well, Wallachian. Transylvanian? Wherever you're from. Why are you here, in Japan?"

"I am, but that doesn't matter," said Leon. "After I… how far have you gotten in my diary? I wasn't with you the whole time."

"The last thing I remember reading was about how rats were edible if you just avoided the green wobbly bit."

"Did you know that I was the first Belmont to hunt the night?"

Something about that phrase rang a bell in Dracula's memories, but Soma couldn't access them. "I did know that. Trevor was the first to kill Dracula, but you're the one who started the tradition. Julius said that he knew about you mostly because Trevor mentioned you a few times in his diary and said you were important; we still haven't gotten to why or how you started the family business. But what does that have to do with anything?"

Leon took in a deep breath. "It's a very long story, and I suggest that you return to your body before I tell you. I suspect that they would be worried if you stayed out for too long without doing any work."

"Oh. Right." Soma had forgotten about them. Mina was focusing on translating her sentences, and Julius was on his computer trying to translate her words. At least, he should have been; Mina was slower at translating Latin to Japanese than Julius was at Japanese to Romanian, so he was playing Pokémon.

Soma returned to his body. "Hey, Julius?"

"Yes?" said Julius, not even looking up.

"There's a ghost sitting right next to you."

Julius didn't even blink. "Hang on; I need to evolve my Magikarp …"

"Having trouble reading today?" asked Mina.

"No, I got distracted by the ghost of Leon Belmont inexplicably appearing in Julius's apartment," said Soma. "Read anything interesting?"

Mina put down the book. "What did you say?"

"Leon Belmont. He's a ghost. I think he wants to talk."

Mina looked at Soma, wondering if he was serious, hallucinating, or just being sarcastic. "All right. Can you get him to translate this page?" She flipped to the next page, which none of them had even looked at.

Soma exited his body. "It looks like they don't believe me."

Leon shrugged. "If I were them, I wouldn't, either. Ask your bat to type the following letters…"

Leon dictated the next page in Romanian. Soma just ordered his bat to obey Leon until further notice. Soma hadn't thought about the amount of effort put into typing since he was in middle school. You had to know where all the letters were, how to spell every word, and hit them in just the right order. That wasn't even getting into the Shift key. Soma considered making another bat to hit the Shift key, but then realized that the process would be much more confusing.

"Hey, Julius?" Mina said as the bat jumped up and down on the keys. "Take a look at this. Is this Romanian?"

Julius looked up. "Yes… it is. The spelling's abysmal, and there's no capitalization or question marks, but it's definitely Romanian."

Soma returned to his body. "See! I told you so!"

"But… for all we know, you could have gone on the internet and translated a bunch of likely phrases. We'll have to wait until Mina translates that page and sees if it matches up."

Soma sighed. "Come on. Do you really think that I would go to the trouble of coming up with relevant phrases that cannot possibly be misconstrued or mangled by online translators, then memorize them in an alphabet that I hardly ever use? All that, just to convince you that I can see the ghost of your ancestor?"

"Good point," said Mina, and not because she wanted to dodge out of translating an entire page of Latin with no help. "But at the same time, how do we know that this is Leon and not some random Romanian ghost who happens to be fluent in Latin?"

"I think he's telling the truth," said Soma. "It's strange, but this guy looks exactly like how I imagined Leon. I think that's because Dracula knew him."

There was a long pause. "Or… we could ask him a lot of questions about what happened to Leon," suggested Julius. "If it checks out, it's Leon. Or someone who knew him very well…"

"Still don't believe you," Soma told Leon after exiting his body. "Any proof?"

Leon sighed. "All right. I can't remember everything I wrote in my diary, but I can tell you that I survived the Crusades, my first commander was named Stanley, the first meal we had in that company was deer that Mathias shot, I became a commander of my own knight company that never had a loss, I ran into the Forest of Eternal Night after my betrothed Sara Trantoul after giving up my title and my sword so that I could kill the vampire Walter Bernhard, and Mathias Cronqvist became Dracula."

"I believe you," Soma said without thinking. Then he replayed Leon's words. "Yes. I believe you."

Soma returned to his body. "It's Leon. It's definitely Leon."

"How do you know?" asked Mina.

"What this guy just told me matches up with Dracula's memories. Dracula knew Leon very well."

Julius gave Soma a look of worry. "You have Dracula's memories?"

"You don't have to worry," said Soma quickly. "They're gone now. Well, mostly gone."

Soma took in a deep breath. "All right. After I killed Graham, I absorbed Dracula's power and memories. I was still in control, but I could feel myself slipping away. Don't worry; after I killed Chaos, Dracula's memories were sealed along with his power."

"But you still remember stuff," said Mina.

Soma nodded. "This might not make sense, but when I had Dracula's memories, they weren't exactly 'life flashing before my eyes'," he explained. "They were memories like any other memory. They required either external stimuli or an effort to recall. Like when you look at an apple and you remember that you forgot to go to the supermarket. Or when you're trying to remember what you put on the list. Except in my case it was more like looking at a skeleton and thinking, 'oh, that's Stanley from my old company,' or trying to remember what my original name was."

"Sure," said Mina, not actually sure where this was going.

"And every memory that I accessed while I was Dracula ended up going into my own memories as Soma," explained Soma. "Even when I lost Dracula's memories, the ones I looked at were still there. It's like printing a page off the internet and then getting the connection cut."

"And while you had the power, you remembered Leon?" asked Mina.

Soma nodded. "At least, I hope that's it and not Dracula's memories leaking in. That happens sometimes. Remember that really bad earthquake we got when we were little? When the teacher told us about the Richter Scale, I remember running to the basement and hiding for no reason."

"And now we know it was because of Richter Belmont," said Mina.

"To be honest, I'm surprised that I don't run screaming every time I hear the name Simon," said Soma. "Nowadays, I get dreams where I find that I turn up to my alchemy exams naked, find that I hadn't studied for my Algebra test and I'm trying to remember formulas that as Soma Cruz I learned in middle school but Dracula learned as an adult, and then I get chased by a pair of redheaded men in black leather. Or I'm hugging my mother, except she's Dracula's mother, and we're speaking in Romanian. Then I have to use my credit card, and I sign using Dracula's name. Or I'm caught drinking blood by my roommates and then we go eat breakfast with my old friend Leon… wait, I guess that is how I remember Leon."

There was a pause. "Fine then, this is Leon," said Julius. "So… can we get him to translate his diary for us?"

"Actually, I want to hear why he's here in the first place," said Soma. "But I'll ask."

"I'm happy to translate," said Leon once Soma left his body once again. "I never actually left, you know."

Soma shuffled a bit. "Er… it's hard not to talk about someone like they're not there if you can't see or hear them."

"No matter," said Leon. "You were wondering why I'm stalking Julius? Ah, Julius… always the cynic. When he was four, he said that there wasn't a monster under his bed because his family would have killed it by now. You know, his parents were distant cousins. Arvis was a member of the main line. Both of them are my descendants; their latest common ancestors were Simon's parents, Titania and Kurt. I figured that three hundred years of separation was enough, so I didn't intervene. Arvis and Deirdre… they made an adorable couple. Arvis tried to propose with a huge bonfire on Deirdre's lawn, but she was busy in the Belmont mansion setting up Christmas lights in the words 'will you marry me?' Arvis ended up in jail, while Deirdre spent days locked up in the dungeon. I was very impressed with how she managed to find out where the Belmont mansion was, and how she managed to finish the first two words before being caught and tazed by Julius's uncle Azel."

"Back on the subject of stalking?" Soma asked.

"What? Oh, right… So, I'm the first of the Belmonts to hunt the night," said Leon. He explained the incident with Walter to Soma.

Soma choked at the end. "I… need to tell this to the others."

"Just, wow…" said Mina once Soma finished Leon's story.

Julius looked at the Vampire Killer. "I may never coat it… I mean her in Vaseline again. It just seems too… rude for me to cover her in lubricant."

Soma looked at the whip and bowed very deeply. "Um… I'm sorry, Miss Sara?"

Then he left his body and started talking to Leon again.

"After I killed Walter and my friend renamed himself Dracula, I swore that my descendants and I would kill the night."

"You said that three times," said Soma, still reeling from the explanation about Sara.

"Anyways, hunting is a dangerous profession," said Leon. "I trained my sons… I remarried twice, by the way. The first thought I still had money from being a Baron, but nope, I was broke. My family didn't exactly cut me off, but I didn't want to take more than I needed. The second alleged that I loved my 'long thin whip' much more than I loved her. She wasn't wrong, you know."

"You had better be talking about Sara," said Soma.

"Why wouldn't I?" said Leon, genuinely clueless.

"So, anyways, your sons?"

"Ah, yes, my sons, Viktor and Cedric," said Leon. "They were the only ones I got from the custody battles. One son from each wife, and the only ones who wanted to kill vampires. I trained them hard. I passed the whip to Cedric. However, we soon found that in his hands, the whip didn't work nearly as well. Viktor tried it, but he couldn't do it, either. I tracked down my other sons and daughters, but earned a frying pan to the head when my exes saw that I was trying to bring their children into a dangerous life of monster hunting. I tried talking to Sara, and she said that she wasn't blocking any of them. Then I tried to talk to Rinaldo, but he was dead. Long story short, we found that the blood contract I made with Sara was made out to me and only me. The user of the whip needed both my blood and my soul."

Soma gaped. "What? Your soul? But your ghost is right here, and Julius can use the whip just fine!"

"The user only needs a part of my blood, and only a part of my soul," said Leon. "The soul is required to unlock the whip's true power. The blood is needed to protect the user from the whip's life drain effect. Long story short, we found a witch who had the power to split a soul. She made it so that when I died, I would wander the earth as a ghost. After that, I could bestow a piece of my soul upon anyone I deemed worthy. I can revoke it as long as the rest of my soul—in other words, the ghost you are seeing right now—is close enough in distance."

"And Julius has a piece of your soul?" asked Soma. "As someone who owns the souls of legions of monsters, I don't think that's how souls work."

Leon nodded. "Julius has my soul. I can't speak for how souls work; but it somehow worked out. I didn't want to die, and I wanted to spare my sons the pain of losing a loved one, so I lived to a ripe old age and then gave the Vampire Killer to Cedric. Viktor married that witch's daughter, Christina. She looked an awful lot like a duck, but she was the sweetest daughter in law. Remembered my birthday and everything. I told Cedric that just because Dolores was pretty doesn't mean…"

"And since then, you've been following your descendants, testing them and allowing them to use your whip?" asked Soma, more interested in Leon's vampire hunting exploits than the soap opera that constituted most of his life.

"Pretty much," said Leon. "Any other questions?"

"First, what constitutes 'a descendant'?" asked Soma. "I heard that the Morris Clan was a branch family, which insinuates that you're also their ancestor. But Jonathan Morris was cursed by the Vampire Killer because he wasn't a Belmont? And since Simon only had daughters, it doesn't have anything to do with the line of males. I thought at first that the whip only worked for a single line of descent, but Julius said that Richter broke that tradition by holding a competition."

"You're right, the Morris family is descended from me," said Leon. "But… you're half right about the single line. You see, Sara is still alive in the Vampire Killer." He sighed. "So the blood contract also depends heavily on Sara. She judges the wielder's worth like I do, but she also has to judge their bloodline. As you know, wielders must be descended from me."

"We established that," said Soma. "They need your blood? But after several generations, you can't possibly expect them to have much of your blood left."

"Apparently, it didn't matter what percentage of my blood they had, only that they were related to me. Otherwise, the clan would have died out from inbreeding."

"Good, so magic doesn't depend on genetics?"

"What was that?"

"Never mind, science," said Soma.

"Ah. Science. Never got the hang of it. Anyways, what mattered was that Sara could acknowledge that the person in question was one of mine. My descendants had to prove it by dripping some of their blood onto the handle for Sara to test. By the way, this really is the only way to prove it. Even if I vouched for them and Sara believed me, she required rock solid proof."

"Kind of morbid for a holy object," said Soma.

Len shook his head. "The Vampire Killer is not a holy object. It's a weapon made to kill creatures of the night. Just because fire or a gun can be used on monsters doesn't mean that they're holy."

"Regardless of holy status, my question remains," said Soma. "If your blood thinned to the point where you couldn't use a DNA test—never mind what that is—then how could Sara tell that these people are your descendants?"

"Because she knows that my grandchildren are my descendants and that their grandchildren are also my descendants…" Leon traced his finger on the air between him and Soma. A pinprick of light hovered in the air where Leon's finger left it. "All right, say that this bit of light is me." Leon traced two more dots, and two lines connected the dots to the first ones. "These are my sons, Cedric and Viktor."

Leon waved his hand, and many lines and dots began branching out from Cedric and Viktor. "These are all my descendants. It's not really how it all went, because I lost track of how many descendants I had after my great-great-granddaughters married off. But for this explanation, this will suffice."

Leon pointed to the Cedric light. "So, Cedric gave his blood to Sara, and so she could tell that he had my blood. Cedric's daughter, Sofia, inherited the whip after him. Sara knew that she had my blood as well. But since she knew that the blood was thinning, she memorized the… taste? Feel? Attributes of Cedric and Sofia's blood. So by the time my blood was almost erased, she could tell who my descendants were because she could tell that they were descended from Cedric and Sofia. Sara found that Sofia's grandson Gordon was mine because he had Sofia's blood, and anyone she could see Gordon's blood in had mine. She repeated the process for everyone."

"C is descended from B, B is descended from A, therefore C is descended from A," said Soma. "Makes sense. Still doesn't answer why… oh, I get it."

Soma pointed to the branches. "Their blood thinned in turn. It became almost like a single line. All of these people are your descendants, but Sara only ever tasted one line of descent. She can only identify the descendants of the last wielder as yours even if all those people-" Soma waved at the branches "-are also yours."

"Exactly," said Leon. "Viktor had my blood, but his great grandchildren needed Cedric's or Sofia's. Sara's senses are only good up to great grandchildren, by the way, and even then that's pushing it."

Soma nodded, but a nagging fact worried him. "What about Richter? He brought the clan into hiding, and gave the whip—er, Sara—to the Morrises. There was a two hundred year generation gap. How did Sara judge that Julius was… wait… did they…?"

"No, they didn't," said Leon firmly. "That wouldn't work. Two hundred years of it would be punishing. Doing it in the last generation would be too late. No, my descendants took the obvious solution that I never would have thought of. Every one of Richter's descendants had a pint of blood taken, labeled, and stored. When Julius was chosen as the heir, they poured the blood of his line onto the whip before pouring his."

"That seems like cheating," said Soma.

"Well, it worked," said Leon. "On a semi related note, Julius didn't have any children. So this is pretty much the only way the next wielder can be approved. I just hope that they didn't throw away the blood in celebration after Julius killed Mathias for good."

"Next question," said Soma quickly. "What led you here to Julius? Why couldn't you have told his family where he was, and saved him decades of amnesia?"

Leon sighed. "First, it is only on very rare occasions when I can speak to my descendants. And even if I could speak with them, I had no idea where Julius was. I thought Julius had died in Castlevania."

"And…?"

"I cannot enter Castlevania. You see, anything dead inside Castlevania-"

"Gets taken over by the castle," said Soma. "People who die inside fall prey to the dark magic and are forced to become zombies or ghosts. It does that wandering spirits that enter, too. That's one reason why so few people come in at a time; if they sent lots of people, then they would have to deal with their dead comrades as well as the zombies that were already there. Not to mention that many knights deserted in the face of eternal damnation. Julius's military backup was the exception to the norm, and even then they had to bring only people who did not believe in the afterlife."

Leon shrugged. "Of course you know. You're Mathias's reincarnation, after all."

"Just out of curiosity, how long have you known this?"

"The fact that Julius's army backup was composed entirely of atheists, or that you're Mathias?"

"The last one," said Soma. "Well, the former sounds interesting, but not now."

"Can I finish my explanation first?"

Soma nodded and gave the floor to Leon. "So, after Richter set up his hideout in… well, you know it's in Romania, but I don't think it's a good idea to tell you where exactly. Nothing personal, just…"

"I'm the Dark Lord and it's not safe for you to tell me where my mortal enemies are hiding?" said Soma blandly.

"Exactly," said Leon. "Mathias attacked Richter's hometown, which was the main reason why Richter moved. Anyways, where was I? Oh, yes…I went with Richter and his family. I've been in the mansion ever since, watching my descendants grow up. I went with Julius as he walked up the road to Castlevania, but I couldn't go with him. I waited for him around the area, but I couldn't find him. Eventually, I gave up."

"And he came out anyways."

"Yes. Not one of my finest moments… poor Julius. So I returned to the house, and watched the family… separate. Richter was wise to force our descendants have lives outside of hunting. With the Vampire Killer lost and Mathias gone for good, my descendants felt like they had lost their purpose. Some of them kept on killing monsters, but most abandoned the hunt and resumed ordinary lives. Many left the house that was their home and haven for generations. I do not fault any of them for their decisions."

"Just out of curiosity, has it been like that for long?" asked Soma. "After Dracula dies, the family doesn't know what to do? Is that normal, or did that start with Richter?"

Leon shook his head. "It actually started with Juste. Trevor was the first, so he and his children thought Mathias was dead for sure. Christopher was caught by surprise, but everyone thought twice would be enough. Simon caught on to the resurrection cycle, as well as the fact that Mathias could be brought back prematurely, but after killing him twice he was fed up. His family was actually rather paranoid about some madman resurrecting Mathias. Juste was the first to wonder about his future after he killed Mathias's shade (even though he did not kill Mathias himself, a trek through Castlevania still counts). In the end, he decided to train his children as hard as his father did to him, so that there would be no slackness when his descendants would kill Mathias. He allowed some of them to quit the business, though. Richter was the same way, except he took Mathias's defeat harder than Juste. But yes, from Juste's exploits onward, my descendants did have a problem with ending angst. It's normal for there to be a lot of tension right up until Mathias's defeat, and then everyone feels flat afterwards. At the same time, it is not as if Mathias is the only evil out there. My family had killed plenty of vampires before Trevor came along."

Soma nodded. When his adventures were over, he was just relieved that everyone came out alive and sane. He supposed that it must have been different for a clan that was only still alive so that it could kill one man.

"May I answer your original question?" asked Leon. "You asked why I was in Japan."

"Oh, right," said Soma. "I forgot about that. Carry on."

"One day, Julius came returned to the hideout. You have no idea how relieved I was. My descendant… descendant is correct, but I think of them more as my grandchildren. My grandson, saved from one of the worst fates to befall… well, anyone. You wouldn't understand."

"And when Julius returned to Japan, you came with him," said Soma. "Last question. How long have you known that I was Dracula?"

Leon shifted his weight on the couch. "I can't say exactly. The minute I saw you, I saw my old friend in you. Your expressions, the way you walk, small habits… they're almost exactly the same." He shifted again. "But, I figured it out when Julius said outright that you were Mathias's reincarnation."

"That would certainly explain it," said Soma blandly.

"Anyways, you wanted me to translate my diary? You can just leave me with your bat."

"Can it hear you when I'm inside my body?" asked Soma.

Leon shrugged. "No reason why it shouldn't. I mean, just because you're out of your body doesn't mean that they're not…? Am I making sense?"

It turned out that Soma's Bats could still hear Leon for some reason. So then they left him to transcribe his work. Julius was going to correct the capitalization and punctuation later.

"Do you think we should do something for him?" asked Mina. "I mean, he's doing all the work for us."

"I think he just wants to be heard," said Soma. "He's been alone for almost a millennia. He watches his descendants, but he can't speak with them. Here I was, thinking that all immortals were allergic to telling people about themselves. Guess you can't just go by Arikado."

There was a pause.

"Arikado is immortal?" asked Julius testily.

"You mean you didn't know?" asked Soma.

"I knew, but I didn't want to fall into the trap where you trick me into confirming your suspicions," said Julius. "Yes, Arikado is immortal. He trained me to fight Dracula, and he looked exactly the same as he does now. Other than dyeing his hair at some point. I'm still not sure if he dyed it blonde before meeting me or if he dyed it black after I killed Dracula."

"Makes sense," said Mina. "He hasn't aged at all in the ten years that I've known him. You would think that he'd be a bit more careful."

"How did you find this out?" asked Julius.

"Like I said, I used to have Dracula's memories," said Soma. "Arikado confronted me immediately after I received them. For a split second, I saw him the way Dracula did. I know who and what he is. But I was too annoyed with him at the time to act on Dracula's feelings, and after that the subject never came up. This tea is really good, by the way. And Mina, for his sake, I won't tell you who or what he is."

There was another long pause. "Do you think that there are any souls that will let you see Leon without leaving your body?" asked Mina.

Soma shuffled through them. The Peeping Eye let him see Leon perfectly, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. The Ghost Dancer soul gave him a shaky image, but he could hear Leon clearly. He was just telling Soma's Bat which letters to press.

"Aren't you getting bored?" asked Soma.

Leon shook his head. "It's no trouble at all. Really, this is the most variety I've had in centuries. When I was in the hideout, I either watched the kids or watched television. And my descendents kept on changing the channel when I wanted to watch my cage wrestling matches."

Leon sighed. "But, you're right. I had forgotten what it was like to be listened to. To have someone who can actually talk back to me. Someone new. Someone who isn't dead and awaiting their eternal reward. For the most part, I've only had Sara for company. And I get to speak with my descendants when they die. But other than the odd medium who conjures me for no reason, that's it."

Leon sadly looked into the distance. Despite his youthful appearance and energy, Soma could see that Leon really was an old man. The old knight mulled around the scenery, doing his duty. He picked up jobs that no one else wanted just to feel needed. And his descendants didn't come to visit him, even though he loved them dearly. Well, that last one was excusable if they had to die to see him.

Suddenly, Soma had an idea. "Leon? Do you want to talk to Julius?"

"Well, you can relay what I say to him," said Leon.

"No, actually talk to him," said Soma. "Face to face."

Mina caught on, despite only having half the conversation. "Soma, don't do it," she said. "He may not be malevolent, but what if you can't get him out?"

"We can exorcise him," said Soma. "Can you do those?"

"I've been practicing ever since I came back from Castlevania," said Mina. "I've gotten pretty good at them."

"That's settled, then," said Soma. "Even if you can't, we can call your family. If they could seal a gigantic hell castle inside an astronomical event, they can get a ghost out of me."

"You didn't ask my opinion on this," said Julius.

"Do you not want to talk to your ancestor?" asked Soma.

"I do, but the least you could do is consult with me beforehand."

So then Soma set the computer so that he could catch up on his anime, and left his body. "Go ahead, Leon. Take my body."

"Are you sure?" asked Leon. "I've never done this before. I'm not sure if I could come out on my own."

"It'll be fine. We can get an exorcist."

And so Leon possessed Soma's body. Unfortunately, the old knight hadn't been physical in over a millennium, so he fell over. He spent several minutes twitching every part of Soma's body on the ground, moaning, choking, and trying to get the hang of using vocal cords, which was rather disturbing to watch.

"Don't forget how to breathe!" Soma called. "And please don't kill my body. I'm still using it."

After a while, Leon managed to gain enough control over Soma's body to sit up. "Julius?" he said. Then he said some stuff in Romanian that Soma didn't know but somehow broke down the awkwardness immediately. Julius responded in Romanian, and the two had a tearful and enthusiastic chat.

"I'll be in the next room, ordering pizza," announced Mina to no one in general. After doing that, she took out her purse and started playing Fire Emblem.

Soma found that even when Leon was in his body, Leon could still see and hear Soma. When the pizza arrived, Soma told Leon that Leon should be the one eating. "You haven't eaten anything since you died," said Soma. "And I don't think you've had pizza before."

Leon tried to hug Soma, but forgot that only one of them had a body and fell over, much to the confusion of the onlookers.

Leon enjoyed the pizza immensely. He started crying, and not from the peppers. He did not, however, like the soda. A lifetime where the sweetest thing he ever ate was fruit or honey did not endear Leon to hypersugared drinks.

Late that night, Soma said that they should be getting back to campus. "We have class tomorrow," he told Leon, and Leon relayed that to Mina and Julius. "Please get out of my body."

Leon nodded, and closed his eyes. Then he muttered a Romanian curse. "It's not working," he told Soma.

"Let me try," said Mina. She did her magic.

It didn't work.

With a sinking stomach, Soma remembered something. He ordered the Bat to change computer screens to a word processor, type in what he wanted to say, and then get the attention of the two living people by jumping on their heads.

"'when I first saw Leon, he was immune to julius's holy water'?" Mina read. "Oh… I get it. You're immune to holy magic?"

Leon nodded. "It appears so. Even after I died, I was never hurt by the crosses and water that people who could see ghosts threw at me. Perhaps it's because I spent so much time with holy objects? Probably not; plenty of dead vampire hunters have been hurt by those. Pious life? Something to do with splitting my soul? Drinking too much Holy Water? No, that would be too material. Maybe it was because…"

Leon realized that he wasn't helping and reddened. There was a long pause. Then Soma's Bat typed in another sentence.

'what are we going to do.'

No one had an answer.

TO BE CONTINUED!

The bit about the Bat typing has a bit of my own subtext. I used to type very slowly. As in, 'look at the keyboard and hit one letter at a time' slowly. Typing game software didn't help me at all, even though the school invested lots of hours and money into them. Two things helped me type quickly. One was the bank escape game on Neopets, which required me to memorize the location of six letters, and the other was writing fanfiction. Now I am a very fast typer. Don't say that fanfiction never did anything for anyone.

Leon does not know about Wind because he was watching the Belmonts at the time. Wind's case was exceptional in this version, rather than Leon being extra holy. I felt like Wind got a boost from possibly being Dracula's descendant, if the fanon that Maria and Alucard founded his clan is true.

I was considering making Leon innocently and casually racist, but decided that I wasn't comfortable with that.


	8. Chapter 8: Naoki and Kazuya

Yup, time for some wacky antics!

Disclaimer: I have never been to a Japanese college, and so I will have lots of inaccuracies. I read some stuff, and I found that apparently Japanese colleges have students in their own dorms. No roommates. But it's more fun to write roommates. It seems like there aren't any cafeterias, either. Oh well.

A note to 'come to think of' and 'LordSlogra': I have received your ideas for the Yeti and Manticore/Mushusu souls.

Naoki and Kazuya

"All right, Leon, here's what to do."

Leon, still inside Soma's body, sat on Soma's bed. Across from him, invisible to all, was Soma. The morning sun shone outside, but Soma shut the blinds so that no one would see him holding a conversation with thin air. Kazuya and Naoki had left for their classes before Soma/Leon even woke up, so the two of them were alone for now.

"As someone in my body, you still technically have the same voice, but you habitually use a different pitch and tone," said Soma. Then he remembered something. "How do you know Japanese, anyways?"

"I've been with Julius in Japan for over a year now," said Leon. "He came home right after his second run through Castlevania. He moved here to keep an eye on you. I picked up the language from reading and listening."

"I see," said Soma. "How much do you know about… well, calling it Japanese culture gives it too much credit. Japanese customs. You know, things like communal bathing, taking off your shoes, things like that?"

"Julius had lots of people explain it to him repeatedly, and I was listening," said Leon. "They thought that just because he was a foreigner that he didn't know anything. It was fine the first time around, but then it got annoying. Sometimes he pretends to not know and gets away with it because he's a foreigner. Can we skip the baths? I can't swim, I don't like getting wet, and I never used to bathe when I was-"

"My body, my rules," said Soma. "I don't want it to start smelling."

"Fine then. Can we at least do it when no one is around?"

Soma nodded. "Makes sense. Try to avoid people as much as possible. Anyone who knows me very well will be able to tell that it's not me, but I am not a very social person, so you don't have to worry about talking to most people. They don't expect me to say hi to them in the halls. I don't exactly have a bad relationship with them; it's just that it's not what I do."

Leon nodded. The night before, they had tried to force Leon's soul out by having Soma's soul ram into Soma's body. The principle was that the Ghost soul should have a failsafe. However, it turned out that the failsafe was to destroy or dominate the soul, so they chickened out at the last second.

"There are a handful of exceptions. First are my roommates, Kazuya and Naoki. Kazuya is always on his computer or distracted by something. He's rude, but he's a good guy. Makes me and Naoki cookies when we're down. Naoki is, on the whole, very hyper and bright, but when he gets angry, _he gets angry_."

"We went to bed before they came in, right?" said Leon.

"Thank goodness for that," said Soma. "Probably out playing video games. Both of them seem like they're just cool guys, but they're also really sharp. Just act like you don't care when you're around them. There is also Daisuke, but he's been avoiding me. He doesn't know me that well, so if he does talk to you, then it should be fine. Just act like you normally would."

Leon nodded.

"There's also Mina, but she already knows about you. By the way, she's not my girlfriend. She's been my only friend since we were… what are you looking at me like that for?"

Leon shook his head, grinning. "Mr. Cruz, you are talking to a man who has been watching his descendants for centuries. I know every excuse and denial in the book. Simon and Serena could talk for hours without getting bored. Trevor kept telling Grant that he and Sypha argued too much. Viktor said that he picked a field of flowers for Christina because she needed the herbs for her potions, but I'm sure that she wasn't brewing anything in that vase on the countertop. Kurt said that Titania was his hunting assistant. Max insisted that Valerie was his witch and not his wife (I wasn't very happy at first about how he did that to my great-times-whatever-granddaughter, but she was fine with it). Richter said-"

"All right, I get the idea!" shouted Soma. He coughed. "Anyways, Mina already knows. There's also Bijin Suwan. She's my stalker. I manage to avoid her with my powers, but…"

"Your powers come from your soul, and not your body," said Leon. "I have your body, but I don't have any of your powers. You can still use some of your powers; last night you made a bat appear." Leon flexed. "You have a very nice body. It's strong and flexible. Then again, the last one I was in was that of an old man, so there's not much competition there."

Soma nodded. "That should be it for people who I interact with. Well, there are also the spies, but that won't be a problem until Saturday. And I call my parents every Sunday. Today is Tuesday."

Soma's stomach grumbled. "I forgot what it felt like to be hungry," said Leon.

"Go get breakfast, then," said Soma.

"Do they have pizza?"

Soma shook his head. "They serve the usual… wait, it's probably not usual for you. Do you usually eat rice and miso for break… did rice and soybeans even grow where and when you're from?"

Leon shook his head. "Still, it would be interesting to taste it. Do you think the taste will change depending on your body or my memories?"

Soma shrugged. "No idea. I suggest you avoid the natto. I like it, but I hear that foreigners hate it. No, actually, you should try it. That would be a very good experiment."

So Leon got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Soma was glad that he didn't use his credit card often, because then Leon would have a lot of trouble forging his signature. He didn't use his seal often enough to justify its sudden use.

Leon took some of everything at breakfast. He told the cashier when she asked that he was just hungry, and she accepted this. She was a little surprised that Soma was being so nice to her, but didn't care.

Soma found out that as a European who had no idea what Japan was until years after his death and thought that Europe was about the same size as Asia, Leon had no idea how to use chopsticks. Luckily, Soma was unpopular enough to allow Leon to be clumsy without anyone noticing. Leon kept dropping a lot of food, so he gave up and got a fork.

He got odd looks from the girl sitting next to him, but Soma just told Leon to tell him that his motor functions aren't working because of his concussion. The girl accepted this.

As it turned out, Leon really liked the bread. He told Soma (in private) that it reminded him the most of being alive. The other food was good, yes, but for a ghost nostalgia was most important. He also said that eating the natto was weird. It tasted good but made him feel unhappy and made his head hurt. [1] It was probably due to the mixed signals of Leon disliking it but Soma liking it.

Class time was a bit more troublesome. Soma told Leon to take notes for him.

"Why are you writing in Romanian? I don't know Romanian!"

"Oh. Sorry." Leon said that under his breath. Then he started writing in Japanese.

"Leon, your handwriting is seriously horrible."

Leon wrote in the corner, in very sloppy writing, "I told you I learned Japanese from reading and listening. I never got the chance to write a single character. This is more like drawing arcane symbols for magical rituals than actual writing."

"You're doing the wrong stroke order," said Soma.

"What does that matter?" wrote Leon.

"Stroke order matters a lot!"

"But why?"

"Look at it this way," said Soma. "Stroke order to character based writing is like spelling to alphabet based writing. Get it wrong, and it just looks funny. It seems pedantic, but you can't just approximate how you pronounce it and…"

Soma trailed off. He recalled that before there was standardized spelling, approximation was exactly what Europeans did. Leon's diary was full of spelling mistakes that Soma's Latin teacher would have hit him for.

Soma let out an irritated huff. "Never mind. Ask Kazuya to take notes for me. Write it to him; if we talk in class, then we're going to get in trouble. Besides, it's harder for him to notice something's wrong with me if you write it."

"Who is Kazuya?"

"The guy sitting next to me… no, on my left. The guy with reddish brown hair. That's not the right kanji for his name. It's…"

Soma traced the kanji for Kazuya's name. Leon followed it. It was a bit ugly, but very good for an amateur.

Soma dictated the words exactly, and Leon followed. Leon tapped Kazuya on the shoulder and showed him the note.

Kazuya picked up the note, and then wrote on another sheet of clean paper, "The hell? What do you mean by this? You've never written anything in Japanese before, but you draw magic circles? Who is this… you want me to take notes for you?"

Leon nodded.

"Fine then. Take it easy. You're still recovering from your concussion. You can't even write straight."

"Well, that could have gone better," said Soma.

"Shush, you. At least he's not suspicious of us."

Twenty seconds later, Soma said, "Wait a second… Kazuya's right. I do still have a concussion. I could have just taken the day off!"

Leon sighed.

Right after the lecture ended, everyone was eager to get out of class. As Leon gathered Soma's things, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around, and saw a short, slightly scrawny boy.

"That's Naoki," said Soma. "He's the one with the…? Something's wrong. Since when did he get those tattoos? Are they…?"

Leon couldn't see any tattoos.

"Hey, Soma?" asked Naoki, apparently oblivious to Leon's staring. "Can we talk?"

Leon remembered what Soma had told him. "No thanks, I'm tired. I think I'll skip the next lecture. I'm going back to the dorm."

Naoki shrugged. "I'm actually done for today. Mind if I come with you?"

"Oh, crap," said Soma. "Worst case scenario."

"Is it really worst case?" muttered Leon in Latin.

"Not yet," Soma admitted. "But it's pretty bad."

Leon tried hard to avoid Naoki, walking as fast as he could and taking lots of shortcuts. He crossed several bridges, jumped off of slopes, and escaped through a bathroom window. Eventually, he managed to ditch him in an alleyway. "This seems cruel," said Leon.

"We have to do what we have to do," said Soma.

"No, you're just being a jerk."

"Leon, how can…you… Naoki?!"

Leon spun around. He must have gotten sloppy since his death; decades of fighting experience still didn't allow him to detect the young man standing behind him.

"Who are you?" Naoki asked, completely serious. He didn't appear to be armed, but both Leon and Soma detected that he was dangerous. The fact that his stance was relaxed revealed to the experienced knight Leon that this boy was no stranger to battle. Once more, Soma was reminded of how similar Naoki and Death were. All emotion was wiped away from his face, save deadly purpose.

"What do you mean?" asked Leon. "It's me. S-"

"No, you're not," said Naoki, walking slowly towards him. "You can't hide from me. I know the scent of spirits. Why are you possessing my friend's body?"

Soma was touched that Naoki considered him a friend, but his head was reeling from his words. Since when did Naoki know about the supernatural? And what was that about smell? Soma could never tell how ghosts smelled.

In the space of time that it took for a light switch to be flipped, Naoki's fist collided with the wall right where Leon's head was. Both Soma's and Leon's reflexes were excellent, so Leon managed to dodge and draw the Nebula in the span of a half second. Behind him, the wall crumbled into dust.

"Who are _you_?" asked Leon, throwing the whip sword with a master's precision, curling the blade right next around Naoki's neck without scratching it. Naoki didn't flinch. Leon flicked the handle, tightening the bladed chain.

Naoki sighed. "I guess you didn't come here to get close to me, huh. But anyways, who exactly are you?"

"You tell me, and I'll tell you."

There was an awkward pause.

"Come _on_ , Leon!" shouted Soma. "We'll never get anywhere at this rate. And be careful with my body! I'm still using it!"

"So your name is Leon?" asked Naoki.

"Yes I…"

"Hold that thought," said Soma. "Naoki, you can hear me?!"

Naoki nodded. "Soma, who is this guy?"

"Tell me where you got your weird glowing tattoos done and how you just demolished a wall, and I'll tell you what's going on," said Soma.

Naoki sighed, but this time, the cold focus in his eyes was gone. He daintily removed the razor sharp blade from his neck. "All right, have it your way. You can put away your sword thing away, now. Want to talk to it over coffee? My treat."

"No thanks, I don't like coffee," said Leon. "Reminds me of…"

"You can have tea or a milkshake instead," said Naoki. "I wasn't being literal."

So then Naoki bought himself a coffee and Leon a green tea, as well as some tiny cakes, and then the two of them jumped up a fire escape and sipped their beverages on the roof of a nice building. "Tea, huh," said Leon. "I hardly ever drank it. I believe I only drank it five times when I was alive."

"Uh-huh. And how long ago was that, Mr. Ghost?" asked Naoki.

"Almost a thousand years ago," said Leon. Soma swore that he did that on purpose, just to see Naoki choke on his coffee.

Once Naoki recovered, he said, "All right. One story at a time. Heads or tails? Whoever calls it gets to tell the story first. Want to bet over who gets a weirder story? 500 yen?"

Soma guessed tails, and went first. "So, I'm the reincarnation of Count Dracula…"

Soma told Naoki his story from start to finish. "…and now we can't get Leon out of my body."

Naoki was suitably surprised. "All right. That was weird. Bet I still have a weirder story."

Soma blinked. "How could you… wait, I'll hear it."

Naoki cleared his throat. "So, I'm a human who was turned into a demon by Lucifer himself…"

Naoki went into great detail about how he went to visit his teacher in the hospital but got involved in a cult's plot to remake the world. And somehow the world was destroyed and turned into a hollow desert world, but he survived because Lucifer turned him into a demon. "What you see, Soma, is what he turned me into. Glowing tattoos, horn, and everything." And then he talked about how a strange old man in a wheelchair asked him to kill people with skulls for faces and steal their light fixtures, and in the process he became the strongest demon. Also, he had a pixie girlfriend. He choked a bit when he talked about someone named Jyoji Hijiri, and when he had to kill his friends. He said that there was a never ending war between Law and Chaos, and Naoki stood firmly on the side of Neutrality despite being Lucifer (Chaos Faction)'s chosen one. Also, there was a goddess who didn't exist, and he knew she didn't exist because she told him that. When he ran out of weird stuff, he finished with how he managed to turn the world back to normal with the help of his teacher. Everyone came back to life, too. "And even though I look and feel human, I still have all my absurd superpowers," said Naoki. "I haven't aged since that day, either. At least I don't think I have. It's only been a year? Two years?"

Leon blinked. "Everything I learned growing up is telling me to throttle you for being demonic and defying God. But I don't think that would be right."

Soma nodded. "Leon, give the Antichrist 500 yen."

Naoki accepted the coin. "Hey… you said there were people spying on you? I met one earlier. I persuaded him not to tell on me."

Soma nodded, and then remembered something. "Hang on… you know that curry that I make?"

Naoki nodded. "The really good one?"

"I make that curry with magic," said Soma. "I got that power from killing a Waiter Skeleton. I wasn't sure if it was safe for normal people to eat, but I figured it was all right since you had some without dying. Guess that wasn't a good idea."

"But no one died, so it turned out all right." Naoki took another sip of coffee. "I don't have any idea what you can do about your… predicament. But Kazuya might."

Soma sighed. "Of course. Kazuya's a demon."

"No, he's a Devil Summoner," Naoki corrected. "He's an absurdly powerful one, but he's still human. He's also smarter than me. He should be able to figure something out."

Leon nodded. "I am very grateful for your help, Mr…"

"Kashima, but you can just call me Naoki," said Naoki. He pulled out his phone and sent Kazuya a text.

"You can stop calling me Mr. Cruz too, Leon," said Soma. "We've gotten a little too close in the past twenty four hours to be on a last name basis. Call me Soma."

"All right, Kazuya's coming to the dorm after dinner," said Naoki. "Want to hang out until then?"

"No, I still have class," said Soma.

"But I can't take notes," protested Leon.

"It'll be all right. Mina's in that class. I can ask her to help. Also, it helps a lot to just listen."

So the three of them parted ways.

"Oh, and Soma?" Naoki called after him.

"Yes?"

"Neither me nor Kazuya particularly want to be found out," said Naoki. "So tell your organization to look the other way, okay?"

"I'll see what I can do," said Soma, really not sure what he could do. Those spies were getting very good at what they did. He started to walk back to campus.

However, it turned out that Soma still had a concussion. The experienced knight and hunter Leon was very good at ignoring pain, so he didn't notice the splitting headache until Soma told him was a concussion was. They decided that it would be safer to just stay in one place, where they couldn't get hit by a car while crossing the street.

The pair returned to the dorm building. They had an incredibly awkward time in the baths. It was a good thing that Leon was already dead, because he would have died of embarrassment had there been anyone else in the room. As for Soma… well, he was more likely to slaughter everyone and bathe in their blood than suffer the humiliation of having other people watch Leon in his body slip on the soap. Both of them were already plenty embarrassed already, with the huge violation of privacy inherent in possessing someone and forcing them to strip. They decided that they would only bathe when Soma's body started to smell.

They returned to the dorm without speaking a word to each other. After they were safe inside their room, Leon broke the silence. "You know, anything that I write can be constituted as a historical artifact."

"I don't think that's how it works," said Soma.

"No, really," said Leon. "I could type anything on your computer, and it could go in the family box. You know how the Belmonts weren't always the ones to kill Mathias?"

Soma nodded before thinking. "Yes. I… all right, I can't remember who else did, but I know the Belmonts weren't the only ones."

"Well, I don't know everyone who did, but I know the second was a man named Hector," said Leon. "Mathias himself was unsure of his immortality, and no one at the time knew of his natural resurrection. So he recruited talented humans to be Devil Forgemasters, which are the only kind of people who can serve as his vessel. Other than, well, his original body (reconstructed several times, but always used the same bones and dust), and of course, you. Devil Forgemasters made monsters and weapons, and are the reason there are so many monsters and weapons all over the castle."

"I was wondering that myself," said Soma. "But only after Dracula's memories left me. It was bugging me why Dracula would provide such nice weapons for anyone who needed them. And why monsters carried them and never use them."

Leon shrugged. "Hector was one of two Devil Forgemasters. To make a long story short, Hector rebelled against Mathias and gave up his power, monsters, and weapons. I believe that he forged the weapons you are carrying; he probably dumped them somewhere and then the chaotic castle scattered them all over."

"That explains it," said Soma.

"The other Forgemaster, Isaac, sought to resurrect Mathias while Mathias somehow possessed him. Trevor intervened, but got suckered by Isaac. Hector killed Mathias again, and he and Trevor became friends. They stood by each other when they were being persecuted by the villagers. When Trevor married Sypha, Hector made him a box for a wedding gift. Hector wanted to make Trevor a really comfortable chair, but Hector's wife Julia put her foot down and told him to make something else."

"A box," said Soma. "That was the present?"

"Don't underestimate it," said Leon. "Hector wanted the box to be the best box ever made. He spent seven days and nights forging it, empowering it with magic of space and time. He made it so that it would open to a different space, larger than the exterior, when certain switches were flipped. You could store an apple inside, press a switch, and then open the box to find a completely different space inside."

"He made a box of holding, then," said Soma. "Very impressive."

"I don't know what that is, but I believe you get the idea," said Leon. "Trevor treasured it. It could not be damaged, and time did not pass inside the box as long as it was closed. At first, he used it as a pantry, as Hector intended, but his mother Sonia (she passed down the Belmont surname to her children; hardly anyone had surnames back then, so while Sonia was a woman, her husband didn't have a name for her to take) insisted that he should use it to hold my writings in it. From then on, the box has been used to store our treasures and our records. However, repeated exposure will damage the records, which is why Julius wanted to transcribe them."

"And Hector thought it would make a good pantry?" asked Soma.

Leon nodded. "Hector used the same enchantment that keeps roasts fresh inside Castlevania. The spell was originally designed to store blood in barrels for when Mathias was thirsty, but Devil Forgemasters are human too and they need food. Mathias, allegedly, used his magic to make food appear whenever anyone needed any."

"Sounds like the Waiter Skeleton soul," said Soma. "Except with more than knobs than just 'curry' and 'cream pie'. From what I remember, Dracula gets more mileage out of monster souls that I do. More food variety, bigger range, and don't get me started on the Mimic soul… I suppose someone made boxes to store the food in? Because you can't just ask freaking Dracula for a snack every time you're hungry."

"Isaac and Hector made the containers, but for a long time the vessels were relatively small," said Leon. "The amount of space they could enchant was relatively small. They had to make a lot of them to prepare for when Mathias was out for weeks. Hector worked around that by making a box that opened to a different interior depending on a system of switches. They weren't very big, but there were many compartments, each enchanted individually. As it happened, he didn't think of making that until after he left Mathias."

"And the castle scattered their weapons," said Soma blankly, as if he were reciting something from long ago.

"Yes, I… said that," said Leon. "What?"

"Hector and Isaac both preferred forging monsters and weapons to making vessels," said Soma, as if in a trance. "They didn't want to waste too much time on food boxes. They found that they could cast the spells on any closed thing. Not just boxes or vases. They found that the walls themselves were suitable containers."

Leon blinked. "What was that?"

"If the weapons were scattered, why wouldn't the food boxes be scattered as well?" said Soma, in his normal voice. "Of course! That's why I found all that food in the castle, too!"

"No, the thing you said before that."

"…It's a bad idea to ask Dracula for a snack?"

"Never mind," said Leon. "You said that Isaac and Hector stored food in the walls?"

"Did I?" said Soma.

"Soma, I believe we have solved the mystery of the Wall Meat!"

There was a pause. "I have no idea what that is, but you could start by writing that," said Soma. "Go ahead. I'll be playing Pokémon with my Bat."

Leon set to work writing everything he could remember as Soma exploited the Nugget Bridge Trick.

Several hours later, Soma read over Leon's shoulder. "What have you written?"

"Everything I just told you," said Leon. "I also wrote about what happened before Trevor came to Castlevania."

Soma whistled. "I'm impressed. How did you learn to type?"

"From watching Julius," said Leon. "I'm slow and I can't get the hang of the Shift Key, though. What time is dinner?"

"Around six. Why do you ask?"

"It's almost six, according to the computer," said Leon. "Naoki said Kazuya should be here around dinner."

Kazuya arrived ten minutes after six. He was carrying a tray full of food. "I heard that you had a problem," he said. "I have dinner for you, Mr. Belmont. Leave some for me."

"Thanks, Kazuya," said Soma. "You're always looking out for me."

Kazuya made no indication that he could see Soma. "So, Mr. Belmont, Naoki couldn't explain everything to me. Could you, please?"

Leon blinked. "Why don't you ask Soma? He's right here… You can't see ghosts, can you."

Kazuya shook his head. "I'm abnormal in many ways, but not in the realm of ghosts."

"Naoki said that you are a Devil Summoner?"

Kazuya nodded. "And he said that you are a ghost from the eleventh century. And that Soma was the reincarnation of Count Dracula. Besides that, I don't know anything."

Leon explained what he knew to Kazuya, with Soma interjecting and forgetting that Kazuya couldn't see him. Kazuya's reaction was much less satisfying than Naoki's. Kazuya nodded calmly, and asked a few questions. He acted more like one of the folk tales he collected and less like actual history.

"You seem to be taking this rather well," said Leon once he was done.

"Soma is Dracula? I'm the reincarnation of Adam," said Kazuya.

There was a pause.

"As in… _the_ Adam? The first man?"

Kazuya nodded. "Lilith told me that. So… my story gets a little weird."

"I bet 500 yen that I don't find it weirder than Naoki's," said Soma. Leon relayed that to Kazuya.

"Oh, all right, then," said Kazuya. "I'm the reincarnation of Adam. All right, this might be a bit confusing. In the year 1999, I was fifteen years old."

"But-"

"Roll with it," said Kazuya. "Like I said, I was fifteen. I had a strange dream where a talking door asked me my name, and it told me I had great power. Then I met a guy who was being crucified and a guy with a demon sitting on his face. I called their names and they joined me. Then we barged in on a hot woman bathing. She said her name was Yuriko and that she was my eternal partner. She turned out to be Lilith."

Kazuya explained that he got an email from someone named Stephen, who explained that he accidentally opened a portal to the Abyss and now Tokyo was flooded with demons from an alternate dimension, and that the government had installed martial law. And the Americans were trying to install their own martial law.

"That did not happen," said Soma. Leon relayed that.

"Well, yes," said Kazuya. "The Americans didn't send Thor to nuke Tokyo, either."

Kazuya then added that he got a program off the internet that allowed him to summon demons. "It's not like your Power of Dominance at all, Soma. You had it easy; you just killed them. I actually had to talk to the demons and persuade them to join me."

"What was that about Tokyo getting nuked?" asked Leon.

"Stop interrupting, and I'll explain," said Kazuya. "Now then, where was I?"

Kazuya said that basically, he met the two guys from his dream. Then he had another dream where he rescued a girl who turned out to be the leader of the Resistance. "She was the leader in real life, I mean. She wasn't the leader in my dream. She opposed both the Japanese martial law and the American interference."

Long story short, the Americans nuked Tokyo after Kazuya tried to stop them, Kazuya's resistance leader girlfriend saved them by throwing them 30 years into the future. Tokyo was in ruins from the nuke. Kazuya's two friends separated into the paths of Law and Chaos and he was forced to kill them, he found his girlfriend's reincarnation, and then he took humanity's future into his own hands by destroying the claims laid by the angels and demons.

He then built a section of the new Tokyo, which he dubbed Valhalla, alongside his wife, and spent many years as the Mayor. The Law Faction ended up building the rest of the city, while the Chaos Faction wanted no part in it and left for their own settlements. Kazuya built Valhalla using his demons and lots of hard work. Then he was assassinated by the Law Faction, partially because he used demons, partially because he opposed the heavy Law slant, partially because he was too popular and powerful, partially because he willingly hid Chaos Faction refugees, and partially because they hated how much he promoted gambling.

"And then, as I died in that cave, something really strange happened," said Kazuya. "I woke up, back home, aged 15. Back in Kichijoji, the suburb I used to live in. It was like everything was reset. Except it wasn't. The first strange thing I found was that Pascal—that's my dog—could turn into a demon whenever I told him to. You see, he willingly merged with a demon in the original timeline so that he could protect me. Then I found that the dates were all messed up. It wasn't 1999 anymore; it was 2033. And I still had all my gear, and the Demon Summoning Program."

Kazuya stretched. "But I was happy. Everything was better. My mother was alive. I started taking classes in some things that would help in event of another apocalypse, like agriculture. And then I went through high school and college, and met Naoki. We found each other out after lots of barbed conversations. We thought something was up with you… er, Soma, but we thought you were just a guy with supernatural powers. We didn't know the whole Dracula thing at all."

Leon nodded. "This is a lot to take in," he said. "I'm a former Crusader. I was furious with Mathias for turning away from God, and…"

Kazuya patted Leon on the shoulder. "It's easy for me, because I'm not religious. But… ah… it'll be all right. It's reasonable to believe that the god of the Law Faction isn't your God."

Leon nodded.

"Hey, wait!" said Soma. "Kazuya, if that's true, doesn't that mean that you're actually a middle aged man stuck in a young man's body?" Leon relayed that.

Kazuya shrugged. "I think of myself as just myself. I don't go by labels. I just act like how I feel. I guess it's more like being a young man with lots of memories. But there are a lot of memories." He sighed. "That's probably why I've been acting more like a punk since the reset. Sure, there's the whole collapse of society rendering respect for elders null, but I stopped thinking of elders as older than me. You're probably the only person I know who's older than me, Leon. Other than my demons. Plus, the fact that I had several sons and daughters who grew up to adulthood while I was alive makes dating kind of awkward. I keep looking at girls, then thinking, ew, gross, I'm old enough to be their father."

"Really?"

Kazuya was red in the face and looked away. "So! You said you wanted a solution to your predicament?"

Both Leon and Soma nodded.

"Well, let's have dinner first. I spent too much time talking, that I didn't spend any time thinking it over."

They ate noodles and roast beef in silence. Leon felt slightly guilty at enjoying the beef when he should have been worried about displacing Soma forever.

"I might have an idea," said Kazuya once he finished his noodles. "But first, have some dessert. Soma makes really good chocolate cream pie."

Kazuya cut a slice for both of them. "It's really good," he said.

Leon tasted it. "Yes, it isAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHGHAAAH!"

The second its lips touched the pie, Soma's body was wreathed in dark flames. Moments later, it fell to the ground.

"Ah! My body!" shouted Soma. "Leon! Are you all right!?"

"Yes… I'm… fine?" said Leon, appearing next to Soma.

He and Soma looked at each other. Then Leon looked down and saw his transparent body. "It appears that I am no longer inside your body," he said. "Try entering it."

"Don't need to tell me twice," said Soma. He reentered.

Soma was hit with all the pain that he was numb to while outside his body, but he quickly recovered. "I'm all right," he said. "Kazuya, it's me. Soma. I'm back."

Kazuya's expression was frozen. "What?"

"I… I think I remember," said Soma. "Leon said he was very heavily aligned with the light. Dark magic hurts him. So… all we had to do was do a reverse exorcism?"

"I could have done a quick Mudo spell," said Kazuya. "Well, one of my demons could have. I can't do magic. By the way, that wasn't my original idea. Mine was to summon all my demons and delegate the task to them."

Leon shook a bit. "Honestly, I'm uncomfortable with demons messing with meEEEEEEEEEEeeeee!"

Leon suddenly vanished.

"Why do you look so surprised?" asked Kazuya. "I know Naoki relies on me a lot, but sometimes it's good to delegate. My demons aren't stupid."

Soma looked at Kazuya like he couldn't believe that he could keep a straight face after watching a ghost vanish, but then realized that Kazuya couldn't see Leon. "Kazuya, Leon just vanished," said Soma.

"That would explain it."

Soma's cell phone rang. "Hello, Mina?"

"Soma!" shouted Mina. "You're back to normal!"

Soma blinked. "Yes, I just returned to my body."

Soma heard Mina say, "Julius, the ritual worked!"

In the background, Soma distantly heard Julius say, "Yep, Leon's right here… _ah_ I did not expect you to be so young… or feminine… I imagined you as an old man… sorry."

Then Mina spoke to Soma. "Julius and I wanted to remove Leon from you without hurting him. So we figured that if we couldn't push him out of you, we could try pulling him elsewhere by summoning him. That was my idea. Julius has these glasses that lets him see ghosts, so we know Leon turned up."

Soma paused. "That's great… er… one thing. We already got Leon out. It turned out that doing an exorcism with dark magic instead of holy magic got him out. He ate one of my dark magical cream pies, and he was expelled."

There was a long silence. "Oh well," said Mina. "Want to see if our way works?"

"Let's try it tomorrow," said Soma. "I'm tired, and I want food. Leon ate when he was in my body, but I want food."

The couple said goodbye and hung up.

"By the way, did Naoki tell you not to tell anyone about us?" asked Kazuya.

Soma nodded. "Although, there are people spying on me. So that if I get kidnapped or Dracula awakens, the Agency knows. They probably know about you already… crap."

Kazuya shrugged. "Good night. I can always erase the memories of everyone involved. I should have at least one demon that can do that."

"Also, I think that Leon might have already-"

"GOOD NIGHT."

X

The next day, Soma panicked a bit when he couldn't find the spies. They improved a great deal. However, no one from the Agency raided his dorm, so he assumed that they were safe.

It turned out that Leon did tell Julius and Mina about Kazuya and Naoki. He had to, because omitting them from the story made the explanation nonsensical. Leon did not like lying, but he managed to give the impression that Soma's roommates were merely people with supernatural powers and not the overpowered godslayers they actually were.

Mina tested her theory out after classes, again at Julius's house. It turned out that yes, exorcising a spirit by summoning it elsewhere is a much safer way for everyone involved than feeding it evil pies. "So Leon can come in at any time," said Soma. "Well, not any time. But there is an exit if we need one."

Mina sipped her Holy Water tea. "Julius came up with another way to get him out, but we wanted to use the simpler way first. It looks like it wasn't necessary after all."

"Just out of curiosity, what was it?" asked Soma.

Mina showed Soma a diagram. "All right, we have your body (Fig. A), the Vampire Killer (Fig. B), Leon's soul fragment (Fig. C) inside Julius (Fig. D), and a Doppelganger that you make using your powers (Fig. E). Leon's soul (Fig. F) is what we are moving. We already know that you can make copies of the monsters you killed, and that you can do that even while outside of your body. We'd have your body hooked up to the Doppelganger using the Vampire Killer. The whip would work as a channel because A) Sara has a blood contract with Leon, and B) the whip is covered in… 'his' blood. Julius would use the soul fragment as a tether on Leon's soul. Julius would be standing right behind the Doppelganger. Julius has Leon's soul and blood, so he can pull on Leon's soul. Leon would also be… 'grabbing hold' of the soul fragment."

"I don't think that's how souls work," said Soma. "And trust me, I know."

"If everything works out, Leon's soul would be pulled out of your body and into the Doppelganger," said Mina. "Then you would dispel the Doppelganger. I said that this plan took too much assuming. We're assuming that Julius has that kind of soul power, that the whip would actually work as a channel, that Leon's soul wouldn't skip the Doppelganger and end up in Julius's body, that you might not accidentally take Leon's soul when you dispel the Doppelganger, and that Leon's soul wouldn't get stuck inside the Vampire Killer. So we went with my idea first."

"I'm glad you did," said Soma.

"Want to try?" asked Mina.

"Sure," said Soma. "We have a way to exorcise Leon's soul from anything. The worst case scenario is that he gets stuck somewhere, and we can fix that."

They persuaded Leon and Julius for a second attempt at exorcism, just for the fun of it. However, it turned out that Julius simply wasn't capable of pulling on Leon's soul. Soma offered to try, but found that he was trying to Dominate Leon and stopped halfway. Then they gave up and exorcised Leon normally.

X

Living in the dorm was starting to get incredibly awkward. It was hard to have an argument about cleaning up with a guy who once described how he ripped the wings off an angel and then ate them because he didn't have any food. Or, as someone who was raised to defer to those older than him, to speak to a guy technically more than three times his age like they were buddies.

After three days of no real conversation, Naoki gave Soma a heart to heart. "Soma, do you want us to treat you like you're the reincarnation of Dracula, or just a normal guy?"

Soma saw his point. "I know, but how exactly do I treat you 'normally'?"

Naoki opened, and closed his mouth.

"Don't lose sleep over it," said Kazuya, looking up from his computer. "Relax. I know you can't relax when other people tell you to, but… think of all the ridiculous stuff we got you involved in."

Soma looked back. "Oh. Right."

It was easier to think of his roommates as his roommates after he remembered all the stuff that they did that Soma just couldn't imagine a demonic abomination and an elderly summoner doing. Demons did not eat ice cream for breakfast. Faust figures did not stay up all night hacking MMORPG systems. And Dracula's reincarnation definitely did not buy boxes of expired fruits just because they were on sale.

X

That Saturday, Soma confronted the spies. "All right, we need to talk about my roommates."

"We have that covered," said Saitou, the eldest of the rookies.

"What?" said Soma, almost panicking.

"We know what you're going to say," said the older man. "We have it all figured out. You have to arrange a transfer, though."

"What? Why?"

"We can't have you in the same room as them," said Saitou, as if it were obvious. "We should have done that from the start."

"Look, just because they're superpowered doesn't mean that they're danger…ous…" Soma blinked. "…We're talking about two different things, aren't we?"

Saitou nodded, his face frozen in surprise. "Your… roommates have super powers? I was talking about how it's probably illegal to spy on people who don't present a clear and present danger and didn't consent, like them."

There was an awkward pause.

Something that nagged the back of Soma's mind became apparent. "None of you were actually spying on me, were you."

The reactions to Soma's query were all he needed for an answer. "All right then," said Soma. "What happened?"

"Paperwork," said all of them in unison. "We took the week off. We figured that this is the only job where you're not supposed to see us, so you not finding us is a good sign."

Soma nodded. "Ah… I guess I shouldn't have told you that…"

"So what was that about your roommates?" asked Hikaru pointedly.

"Um, forget I said…" Soma began, but an idea struck him. "All right, I'll fess up. My roommates have supernatural powers."

There was a slight murmuring. "But," Soma added, "They don't want to get involved with the Agency. They want to be left alone in secret. So from now on, if you notice anything weird about them, please don't report it."

There was more murmuring.

"I believe that one of my roommates said that he caught one of you hanging around, and… well, he said 'persuaded,' but I assume that he threatened you into silence."

"You have horrible taste in friends," said Hikaru. "He threatened to kill me and my entire family. Now that I've told you that, excuse me while I call my mother."

"All right, we won't tell," said Saitou. "But in exchange, let us win this round. None of us want to face our boss's wrath."

"Fair enough," said Soma. "Mutual silence, then. If any of us breaks our word, the other side has to tell Arikado."

When he returned to the dorm, he informed his roommates about the Agency and the spies' decision.

"So… that means that as long as we stay in this dorm, we do supernatural things without getting caught by spies?" asked Naoki.

"As long as you're sure no one else can see," said Kazuya. Like usual, he was programming.

"Hey, Naoki?" asked Soma. "Did you really threaten to kill someone's entire family?"

Naoki looked up. "It was an empty threat. I wouldn't actually go through with it. Too messy, too hard, and always the chance that the sole survivor will learn the ancient art of demon slaying from an old master and seek revenge."

"And murder is wrong," added Soma.

"And illegal," Kazuya interjected.

"Well, that goes without saying," said Naoki. "So… now that the only people who are watching don't care, who wants to make s'mores with fireballs?"

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Eating natto makes Leon's head hurt: I have this weird thing where eating fish eyes makes me feel like my temples get an electric shock.

The idea where the Vampire Killer is used as a jumper wire belongs to LuciferXIII Trollkaiger Green. The idea of using a Doppelganger was LordSlogra's.

As a side note, on the SMT power scale, Dracula is pretty far up there. In Shin Megami Tensei 1, Vampires are level 62. Dracula is even higher than that. I don't want to turn this into a sausage fest of which game has stronger people, but I'd say that Dracula is about the level of the most powerful demons. Like the Archangels, Mara, Arioch, etc. But he's below the Superboss Fiends, Satan, Superbosses, Main Protagonists, and of course Lucifer and YHVH. Naoki and Kazuya are stronger than him. Well, Naoki on his own is stronger than Dracula, and Kazuya on his own is weaker. But Kazuya's strength is in his summoning ability.

In that token, Death is a Fiend. Not like Superboss, 'only turns up in one area' Fiend, but like ones in SMTIV where they appear on missions with the level scaled down.

Also, the box that Hector made for Trevor has 256 different interiors. There are eight switches that work an on/off state, and each space is numbered in binary. There's Space 0, Space 1, up to Space 255.


	9. Chapter 9: Mimic

I just played the first Castlevania. Mock me if you will, but save states saved my life. There's no way I could have played the game without them. Even with them, it was insanely hard. Kudos to all of you who didn't cheat like I did.

I have a rough estimate that 1 yen is around 1 penny. It's not accurate, but at least it's better than stories where Japanese people say that the damage the main characters cause is worth approximately several thousand yen (i.e. less than $100 USD). I assume that the gold in the game is more analogous to yen, because $100 for a map seems kind of cruel.

Mimic

"Going shopping?" Naoki asked Kazuya as he picked up his wallet and bags. "Could you get some apples for me?"

"I'm not going to the supermarket," said Kazuya. "I need some zinc metal."

"Zinc?" said Soma. "I got you covered." He reached into his wallet and dumped out a cascade of American pennies. "They're copper plated zinc nowadays. I can melt the exterior and leave the interior."

"No, you can't," said Kazuya. "Zinc melts at a lower temperature than copper. Cut them in half and then melt it. How good is your temperature control?"

"I'm not sure," said Soma. He switched to the Flame Demon, and made three fireballs hover in midair. "Got any tongs?"

Naoki just picked up a penny and thrust his hand into the fire. The intense heat didn't even faze him. The penny started to melt, so Naoki moved it further away from the center. "How much zinc do you need?" asked Naoki.

"A lot," said Kazuya. "But it's fine if it has copper in it." He blinked. "Wait… Are those American pennies? Why are we melting money? And why do you have so many of those, anyways?"

Soma looked down at his wallet and sighed. "All right, so in Dracula's castle, for some reason there was a lot of money scattered all over the place. The type of currency changes from era to era. I got American dollars. According to Julius (Leon's descendant; he's the one who killed Dracula for good), back when he had his first trek there, all the money was in Jamaican dollars. Julius also said that Simon became rich from all the money during his trek, so presumably it used to be in whatever the currency was at the time."

Naoki and Kazuya nodded, not really sure where this was going.

"I kept on wondering where all this money was coming from," Soma added. "But while I was going through a strangely monochrome area, I discovered a monster called a Mimic. It looked like a bag of money, but it attacked if you came near."

"You would think that Mimics would look more like treasure chests," said Kazuya. There was a pause. "I play video games a lot."

"I noticed," said Naoki. "You're not really up to date, are you? I don't think game stores have stocked games for the consoles you play since… well, 2020."

"I'm from the 90's, remember?" said Kazuya. "I wanted to have something that reminded me of back then. And I played lots of video games. Moving on, what was that about Mimics?"

"You both know about how I can use monster souls, right?" said Soma. "I can make monsters appear and control them, yes, but for the most part they give me special powers. Some give me the power to shoot lightning. Others make me stronger or luckier. There's even one that lets me eat rotten food without any side effects." He let that sink in.

"Wait, so you scammed us out of 15,000 yen!" said Naoki. "You made a bet that you could drink a gallon of expired-"

"Yes, I know," said Soma. "Thanks for paying off my book loans, by the way. So the Mimic soul does a thing where if I get hit or hurt, then money appears in my wallet."

"Like Coin Battle in Smash Brothers," said Kazuya. "I play up to date games too, Naoki."

"There's a drawback, isn't there?" asked Naoki. "There's always a drawback. Otherwise you wouldn't be eating old fish and magical curry."

Soma gave an impressive sigh.

X

Hammer was by no means a weak person. He used to be in the military, after all. But compared to the witch, the vampire, and the hunter, he just couldn't keep up. He had a limited supply of ammo, after all. And for some reason, the others suggested that if he wanted to fight alongside them, they suggested that he learn to throw knives and climb walls.

Still, Hammer was a very courageous person. Venturing through giant hell castles in search of goods to sell requires more out of a person than just greed. But he also decided that everything he sold had to be worth the risk, and the reward had to be proportional to the risk. Things like knives he could just peel off of zombie corpses, so they were very cheap. The weird rings that made ghosts chase him through half the castle cost a month's food bills.

Beggars couldn't be choosers, so Hammer let the handful of people in the castle pay in both yen and dollars. He said that 100 yen was about a dollar, and no one really wanted to calculate the fluctuating exchange rate. Hammer gave the kid Soma a discount, partially because he saved him and partially because he was a kid. The weird guy J paid full price, except he never bought much. He only bought potions and healing items; he said at first that the only weapons he needed were a cross, a bigger cross, an axe, and a bottle of water. Later, he said that he upgraded. To a ratty whip that looked like it could have belonged to Hammer's grandfather. Hammer wanted to charge the pretty boy Arikado double price for rudeness, until Mina pointed out that he was the only reason why there was a safe spot in the castle. So Hammer grudgingly gave him a discount, even though the man never answered any questions and occasionally called him Grant.

Even though he liked the kid Soma, Hammer still valued his life enough to ask for a lot of money in exchange for the Soul Eater Ring. He hadn't really expected the kid to ask for it, given that it attracted monsters and didn't seem to have any use otherwise. But it had almost cost him his life, and so cost more than what the kid would have in his wallet.

At least, that's what Hammer had thought.

"Hammer? I have the money."

Hammer dropped the hammer he was lifting. "What?"

"I have enough money for the Soul Eater Ring," said Soma, in a slightly sheepish manner. He took out several heavy bags. "$3000, or about 300,000 yen. Except… I know I have enough, but…"

Hammer opened up a bag. It was full of pennies. There was a long pause.

"I found a way to get lots of money, but it only comes out in pennies," said Soma. "I'd say that pennies make up three quarters of my savings."

Hammer looked at the bag. "You're absolutely sure that you have enough?" he asked.

Soma nodded. "I know I have enough, but I don't know how many pennies I have. We're going to have to count them out."

There was a long staring contest between the two of them. "All right," said Hammer. "I trust you. Dump out all your money. Make piles worth one dollar each, and make a tally mark. Go get your girlfriend to help."

The three of them spent several hours just piling the pennies. None of them really minded counting; Mina had nothing else to do, and both Hammer and Soma liked doing something while completely safe from monsters. Eventually, Arikado turned up and said that he would take over. He and Soma had a talk; Hammer was in earshot, but he had no idea what they were talking about. But both of them turned out annoyed with each other; Soma had journeyed yet again into the castle, and Arikado refused to answer any questions, as per usual. Arikado also told Hammer to give Soma the ring, and if it turned out that Soma didn't have enough, he would pay for the remainder. It turned out that Soma was right and wasn't short of any money.

X

"So what could have been the most useful power in the real world is actually the most useless," said Kazuya. "Stuck on one currency, and the lowest value. Good thing we live in a world where you can easily exchange it."

Soma had no idea how important the modern day ability to exchange currencies was to Kazuya. "I thought that when I lost my souls and then regained them, that the setting for the Mimic soul might change, but it looks like it didn't," said Soma. "I believe that Dracula is fully capable of choosing what kind of money comes out of the Mimic soul. And I'm sure that he funded everything with the Mimic power. But I don't have his full power, memories, or know-how, so I can't make any changes. The Mimic soul isn't the only one with a… 'trial version;' the Waiter Skeleton (the one that makes food made out of dark magic appear out of nowhere) also is stuck on curry and cream pie mode. Unlike the Waiter Skeleton, Mimic is virtually useless."

"Come on," said Naoki. "You can make it rich. You just lack patience."

"Oh, really?" Soma said in a tone that just oozed 'I already tried everything and you think you can do better'-ness. "Mina and I tried it. We glued nails to a chair and had me sit on it. I sat on in for three hours, and what did we have to show for it? Five bucks. Less than minimum wage. I could work at a fast food place for four times the money and none of the pain."

"Customers can be jerks," said Kazuya.

Naoki cracked his knuckles. "But you've never been hit by a guy like me before, have you?"

Soma paused. "You're not seriously going to-"

Naoki broke Soma's arm.

After lots of shouting and cursing (Kazuya had one of his demons soundproof the walls, just in case), Soma got up. "I have to equip the soul first!" shouted Soma. "I normally walk around with the Ghost Dancer soul on, so that I can see Leon!"

There was a pause. "Oh. Sorry."

"All right, Naoki. I have the power to heal. But the fastest way to heal myself is to drink the blood of other people."

Naoki looked worried, but said, "All right then. Take as much as you wAAAA-"

Soma bit Naoki on the neck, and then there was much flailing of arms and splashing of blood everywhere.

"Hold… still…" Soma grunted. "Ah…Your blood is seriously good…"

"Get him off!" shouted Naoki. "KAZUYA, GET HIM OFF!"

Kazuya hit some keys on his computer. A small implike creature appeared. "Brownie, when this is over, go clean up the blood."

Ten minutes later, both fighters were lying on the floor, panting and sweating. "How much did we get?" asked Naoki.

"We?" said Soma. "Who said anything about 'we'? But… forty bucks, maybe?"

"Awesome! How much is that in yen?"

"4000?" said Soma.

"Are you going to continue this much longer?" asked Kazuya. "Because I don't want to make my Brownie work more that it has to." The Brownie nodded. "Actually… you know what? Brownie, make piles of 100 pennies."

"Do you make your Brownie do everything?" asked Naoki.

Kazuya nodded. "Brownie is the only one that doesn't mind me telling it to do household chores. Well, technically Pascal and Samael don't mind either [1]. But Pascal is a fire breathing lion dog, and Samael is too big."

"Pascal is his pet dog," said Naoki.

"The one that became a demon?" asked Soma.

"That's the one," said Kazuya. "Naoki, are you really going to beat up Soma for money?"

"It's free money," said Naoki.

Kazuya had a faraway look on his face. Not one spawned of the bliss of wealth, but one of concentration, weighing pros and cons, and the calculation of outcomes. It wasn't for nothing that Kazuya was the mayor of an entire section of a postapocalyptic city, Soma realized. For the first time, Soma saw that Kazuya was really an old man in a young man's body. Even if he said that he didn't think about it much, he couldn't easily brush aside the fact that he had shouldered more responsibility than a general in wartime. At least generals mostly dealt with subordinates, not civilians.

"And I'm assuming that you're sharing with us?" asked Kazuya after some thought.

"You guys just decided that for me," said Soma, slightly annoyed.

"It'll be easier to conceal the money if we spread it out between all of us," Kazuya pointed out. "People watching us would see three people each spending a little, not one person spending a lot. We can use the money for things that we all need, and for our services Naoki and I get a piece."

Soma and Naoki nodded. "All right then, we share it," said Soma. "Half of it goes to a fund to spend things that benefit all of us, like food and cleaning supplies. One fourth of it goes to me, because I am the producer and I have to put up with being beat up. You get fifteen percent, Kazuya, and Naoki gets a tenth."

"Why does Kazuya get more than me?" asked Naoki.

"Because he's the financial advisor," said Soma. "Also, you broke my arm."

"So I'm financial advisor?" asked Kazuya.

Soma nodded. "You said that you used to be a mayor? You're good at organizing, aren't you?"

"Yes, I did have to do a lot of compartmentalizing to get the city built." Kazuya nodded. "All right, as my first act as financial advisor, I declare that none of you are allowed to spend too much on one thing," he added. "We're a bunch of starving students. We'll eat better than before, but we can't get anything that would be logically out of our means. You can spend your section of money on ice cream or coffee, but if you want a video game console, get a job."

The other two roommates nodded. "Yes, _mom_ ," said Naoki.

"Watch that mouth of yours, Naoki; I'm old enough to be your father, remember?" said Kazuya. "We have no method of laundering this money. Anyone who takes an interest in us will see that we shouldn't have as much money as we spend. They might not suspect that we're making money magically appear from evil magic, but they might think that we're doing something illegal."

There was another pause.

"Now that that's settled, we need to figure something else out," said Kazuya. "How exactly are we going to exchange four thousand pennies at the bank? Does the bank even exchange foreign currency? Assuming that it does, does it accept large amounts of small change? And won't they get suspicious on how a trio of Japanese students with no history of travel got a ton of American pennies? Sure, there's confidentiality, but I don't know how far that goes."

"I went to Russia not long ago," said Soma. "And you know I'm actually from Spain?"

"Doesn't count, unless they had lots of American tourists or something."

There was a pause.

"What do you mean, you're from Spain?"

Soma gave an irritated sigh, as if he had to explain it a million times before. "You never wondered why my last name is Cruz? Or why whenever I call my parents at night, the windows always show sunlight? And that I speak to them in Spanish?"

Naoki opened his mouth to say something, but Soma cut him off.

"Before you say, 'But your Japanese is so good!' let me get something straight. I'm better at writing kanji than I am writing in Spanish. My parents moved to Japan not long after I was born. Something about debt collectors and the mafia. It's a really sordid and kind of silly story. So my parents skipped town and moved in with my mother's parents in Japan. How my mother met my father despite being from two countries on opposite sides of the globe is an even sillier and more sordid story."

"Does it involve space aliens?" asked Naoki.

"As a matter of fact, it does," said Soma. "Anyways, I grew up in Japan, and I made friends with Mina. You haven't met her yet, but she's the one you've been teasing me about. My parents taught me Spanish because they expected to move back to Spain, which we did when I was nine. I was kind of homesick for Japan, so when I got the chance to study abroad in Japan, I took it. I haven't moved back since."

There was a pause. "That is so farfetched a story, that I don't think there's room for you to be Dracula," said Naoki. "It makes me think of how in almost every anime that takes place in somewhere other than Japan, there's someone who is at least half Japanese with almost no justification."

"Also, I was conceived on a full moon," said Soma. "Out of wedlock on Friday the 13th, on top of a place where druids sacrificed two headed goats. I was born on a full moon, too. On Halloween. All the lights went out in the hospital the second I was born. They got the backup generator up in time, but four people died."

Kazuya blinked. "That is kind of ridiculous. Next thing you tell me is that all four people were young female virgins. Anyways, we should come up with a way to exchange the money."

The three of them sat down. "How about we try this," said Soma. "I know two people who can potentially exchange this money. There's Julius, who has travelled around the world. Chances are, he's been to America. He probably knows the banking system better than we do. There's also a guy named Hammer. He runs a shop that's kind of far from here, but we can take the train. Hammer is actually American, so there's a good reason for him to have so many pennies."

Kazuya and Naoki thought on this. "All right," said Kazuya. "Go give Hammer a call. If that doesn't work, you can ask Julius."

"Call?" said Naoki. "This is 2036. Text him or something."

"Whatever," said Kazuya. "Just tell him about our plan."

Soma tried to call, but Hammer wasn't there. So he left a message.

"So… are we coming?" asked Naoki.

"You can come if you want," said Soma.

"What kind of stuff does he sell?" asked Kazuya.

"He sold me weapons and healing items, but I doubt that he can stay in business with just that," said Soma. "For all I know, he sells American snack foods."

"I'll come, then," said Kazuya. "But to make it worth the trip, we'll need to produce more than the train fees, lunch costs, and also have enough to make up for lost time."

Naoki looked at Soma and grinned. Soma glared back at Naoki, with all the cold fury that Dracula could muster. "I will suck you dry," they said in unison.

After watching the pair fight for a while, Kazuya realized that he forgot what he wanted the zinc for.

X

The next time the three of them all had a free day was Sunday. They took the train, and Kazuya packed bento with cookies. Naoki wanted to stop by the ice cream shop, but Soma insisted that they go to Hammer's shop first.

"Welcome—oh, hey, is that you, Soma?"

"Hi Hammer," said Soma.

Hammer looked at Soma's two roommates. "You brought friends?"

"Yeah, these are my roommates, Kazuya and Naoki."

Naoki nodded at the mention of his name.

"Nice to meet you," said Kazuya. "Wait… you're playing the Shop theme from Ocarina of Time, aren't you?"

Hammer nodded. "Working in sheer silence scared me a bit. So, are you here to buy anything? I assume that you're here for the… other goods."

Naoki blinked. "You're a drug dealer, aren't you."

Hammer blinked. "What? No! I sell rubber ducks!"

"He also sells weapons," said a voice in the back. Mina came out of the bathroom. Then she took a double take upon seeing Soma. "Soma? What are you doing here?"

"We're here to launder the money from the Mimic soul," said Soma. "Don't worry, these guys came up with it. They already know. They're my roommates, Kazuya and Naoki."

"Nice to meet you," said Mina. "I heard about you from Leon."

"What did he say about me?" asked Naoki.

"Well… he said that Naoki was strong and nice, and is part demon," she said. "Kazuya brought him food and is a summoner. I don't know which one you are, since he didn't say what you looked like."

"I'm Naoki," said Naoki. "Pleased to meet you."

"Anyways, what are you doing here?" asked Soma.

"I needed to buy some weapons," said Mina. "Yoko is teaching me magic, but she also told me to learn how to use weapons. She told me to come here."

"I can't legally sell her guns, but everything else is fair game," said Hammer. "We've been looking over which weapons she can conceivably carry around." He cleared his throat. "So, you guys are Soma's friends? I'm Hammer. This is my shop."

Kazuya looked around. "You have a lot of bath stuff around for a weapon shop."

"It's a front," said Hammer. "I say that I sell rubber ducks and bath implements, because I'd probably get hell from people who take weapon bans seriously."

"What kind of weapon do you like?" Kazuya asked Mina.

"I think the Whip Sword would work the best," said Mina. "Good range. It's hard to use, but it's worth learning. If I use it well enough, monsters can't get close to me." [2]

Kazuya had a faraway look on his face, this time not a mask of responsibility at all. He was reminiscing about something. "I knew someone who used a sword like that."

"You never sold anything like that to me," said Soma.

"I didn't. _You_ sold lots of them to me when we were at Celia's castle," Hammer explained.

"Oh, right," said Soma. "Yoko did this thing where we upgraded weapons. I bought the cheaper weapons from you, and then sold them back once they upgraded. I mostly did that with those knuckle dusters and the axes, though."

"Wait… you sell guns?" asked Kazuya.

Hammer shrugged. "Well… technically… no and yes."

"Hammer sold me guns on several occasions," said Soma. "He didn't even ask me for a license."

"I lent you guns," corrected Hammer. "It's illegal, but that was when you were raiding a castle. A few handguns to ensure your safety is nothing." He looked at Naoki's slightly shocked expression and Kazuya's neutral one. "What? It was a castle with a grand total of eight people, including the two of us. No witnesses. And I took the guns back when he was done with them, because I can get away with holding them. I have a handgun license."

Kazuya sighed. "Would you believe me if I told you that a man at the antique store sold me a machine gun? And here I was, thinking that the guy in the arcade was trying to tell me that the shopkeeper actually sold drugs in hollow statues. I was fifteen at the time."

"I believe you," said Naoki.

"So that's what's in that violin case," said Soma.

Kazuya shook his head. "No, that would be stupid. In the event of accidental discharge, that would destroy the case. I store my guns in actual gun cases."

"Guns?" said Mina. "Plural?"

"Yep. Want to see? I have a railgun, a bunch of machine guns, and a Golden Gun like in James Bond. I don't know how they made that, but they did."

Mina sighed. "After spending several weeks inside a solar eclipse, I think I can believe anything."

"I start shaking uncontrollably whenever I watch Alice in Wonderland, or anything to do with her," said Kazuya.

"I have a fear of matadors," said Naoki.

"My dog turns into a giant fire breathing lion with one head," said Kazuya.

"I love walking around shirtless and use every excuse I can do to so," said Naoki.

"I consider killing a skeleton in a closet and stealing its violin to be my greatest achievement," said Kazuya.

"Same with me, except switch 'skeleton' with 'skeletons', 'closet' with 'desert', and 'violin' with 'candle holders'."

"All right, I still believe you," said Mina. "You don't have to tell me every detail of your lives."

Naoki cleared his throat. "Anyways, about the laundering?"

"Oh, right," said Soma. He took out the bag of pennies. "You… did get my message, right?"

Hammer nodded. "You want me to exchange those pennies for yen? Why couldn't you just go to a bank or something?"

"Too many questions, and we don't know if they take small change," said Kazuya. "We figured that since you're American, they wouldn't question the ton of pennies."

Hammer nodded. "All right, I'll do it. But you'll have to count out-"

"Got you covered," said Kazuya, holding up a large sack. "We put them all in tiny plastic bags with 100 pennies each."

"I was going to say that you have to put them in those paper tube roll things," said Hammer, taking a box of them out of the back. Naoki groaned. "I'll take 10% of the proceeds as a fee."

"Fair enough," said Soma. "That goes out of the collective fund, by the way," he said to his roommates.

"Hang on," said Mina. "You're making more pennies? You didn't take the chair with you, did you? I thought we decided that it was inefficient."

"No, Naoki just kept hitting me," said Soma. "He's surprisingly strong."

Mina looked at the two of them suspiciously.

"Repeatedly," added Naoki. "I'm part demon, remember? He had to drink my blood to recover."

Mina looked at Naoki, and then at Soma. "You didn't tell him that you have the power to heal pretty much anything as long as you're sitting on a chair?"

Naoki blinked. "What?"

"It's one of his weird soul powers," said Mina. "Did he explain it to you?"

"Reincarnation of Dracula and all that," said Kazuya. "The kinds of powers seem kind of… arbitrary, though. You would think that a Mimic would give his disguise abilities."

"You would think that a moving table would give him telekinesis, not the power to heal himself whenever he sits down on a chair."

"What was that about healing on chairs?" said Naoki, edging closer to Soma. "You just said that you could heal yourself by sitting on chairs. Why was it necessary for you to bite me?"

Soma glared at him. "You broke my arm for petty cash. If we're going to keep doing this, I don't want to be the only one suffering in this endeavor." He turned to Mina. "Could you help us fence the money? You'll get five percent. It comes out of Naoki's share."

"Hey!"

Kazuya looked at Mina, then at Soma. Then at Mina again. "Are you two dating?"

Both Soma and Mina turned very red.

The look in Kazuya's eyes was exactly like Leon's when Soma brought up Mina in front of the ghost. It said, rather clearly, "I'm not just a father, I'm a grandfather. I've been around the block from both sides. You kids are just deluding yourselves. You're in love, and you know it."

 _Aw, great, that makes four. First Hammer, then Julius, and then Leon, and now Kazuya?_ Soma latched onto the nearest thought to escape Kazuya's questioning. "Come to think of it, if Dracula funded the castle with a power that makes money appear whenever he was injured, doesn't that mean that…?"

X

"Is the Belmont gone?"

"I think he is. Now you heard the Master's orders."

The Mini Devil shuddered. "But… we're looting his body."

"On his orders!" snapped the Imp. "The Master cannot fault us for obeying him."

"Yes, but… you know his temper," said the Mini Devil.

The Imp grabbed a fistful of dollars from the smoking pile of blood, flesh, dust, and bones that was its master. "You know what we were told to do! In the event of our Master's defeat, we are to take the money he made from the pain of battle and death, and then drop it off at the designated area!"

The Mini Devil opened up the sack. "Somehow, this seems disrespectful."

The two small demons set to work shoveling francs into the bag. "Hurry up!" said the Imp. "The castle can fall on us at any minute now!"

It never actually did. The castle just stood there.

"All right then," said the Imp once they got the money all in one place. "It didn't fall on us. Now… we just have to… well, guard it for the next century."

"Got any popcorn?" asked the Mini Devil.

X

"Pardon me? You want me to do _what_?" Death said, cradling… 'his', for lack of a better word, scythe.

"Hit me," Dracula repeated. "As hard as you can."

"Why?"

Dracula sighed. " _Final Fantasy VII_ is coming out, and I don't have a Playstation. We don't have enough yen in the castle after I bought the N64 for you-"

"It's not like you didn't play it, either," said Death. "We spent hours unlocking the minigames together on Mario Party. And I know for a fact that the second person on the Ocarina of Time file is you. And I never unlocked Ness on Smash-"

"And we don't have any reliable source of money," Dracula continued, ignoring Death. "Looting adventurers is not exactly a lucrative enterprise. The best way to do this is the Mimic soul."

Death looked at his best friend/master. "All right, then."

For the next two hours, lots of shouting, wineglasses and scythes being flung around, and archaic curses could be heard in the Throne Room. Then there was a brief silence, broken by a shout of, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY 'INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY EXCHANGE'?!"

Dracula had awoken in the early 1990's, but his resurrection was imperfect. His mind was there, but his body was in horrible shape. Everything from the halfway down the torso up was fully functional, but nothing else was. It looked fine out the outside, but every time Dracula tried to move his legs, his entire body doubled over in exhaustion and pain. Magic didn't work; he could still control his minions because of the Power of Dominance, but he could use none of the soul powers. Not even the standard vampire powers worked; the relics didn't help at all. He resorted to riding a Nightmare everywhere he went because he couldn't walk or fly. Seeing the Vampire King riding a horse made of darkest dreams is only frightening when he doesn't fall off.

Dracula considered ordering his minions to abduct young virgins to regain his power, but then figured that if he did that, then the Belmonts would know that he was awake and then send their next son after him before he was able to actually stand up without falling over. So he decided to just let the dark power of the castle heal him. To pass the time, Dracula spent a lot of time reading his gigantic library. When he got bored, he asked Death what humans for fun now that they didn't all spend their time farming or waging war.

Death then introduced Dracula to video games. He had the Lightning Dolls supply a constant stream of electricity for the systems to work, and stole a bunch of consoles, games, and a TV. Dracula, surprisingly enough, became addicted. Sure, he got annoyed with Fire Emblem for portraying unrealistic tactics, Metroid reminded him far too much about his sworn enemies, and he couldn't beat Super Mario Bros. But Dracula had a lot of fun. He even insisted on paying back the stores that his minions robbed, on the basis that they would make better games if he helped pay for them. He started learning Japanese upon finding out that almost all of the games he liked were made there, so that he could buy new games before the rest of the world.

Dracula's addiction got so bad that once Death realized that Dracula's body was fully functional after half a decade, he had to persuade Dracula to get off the comfy throne and start preparing for the Belmont clan's inevitable assault by saying that the Belmonts would be training right now.

The moment Death and Dracula was having that conversation, Julius Belmont was being beaten by his cousin Arthur in Mario Kart. At least he was ahead of Arikado.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Brownie, Pascal, and Samael don't mind doing housework: Brownies do housework in mythology. Pascal the Cerberus is Kazuya's most loyal demon; he not only becomes a demon for his sake, he also breaks the rule of 'you can only have demons at your level or lower'. I feel like Pascal would do menial chores if he could, but Kazuya wouldn't want to make him do that. As for Samael… in my game, Samaels join surprisingly easily. They often ask if the main character would accept his fate, and if the main character says that he wouldn't, then Samael joins him automatically. This doesn't happen all the time, but it happens more often than not. And Samael (and some other demons, I believe Ose does it too, but mostly Samael) says that he'll be the main character's slave. So I can imagine him doing housework because Kazuya tells him to. Kinda hilarious, considering that in IV Samael is the highest level Fallen demon.

[2] Mina and the Whip Sword: I found Aria's Whip Sword a lot of fun to use. Even though I had lots of better weapons, I kept going back to it.

The names of Julius's relatives come from a certain game franchise. Guess which one.

I feel like if there was internet gaming in the 90's, Dracula could have played online with Julius without even knowing. Chances are, Dracula and Kazuya played the same games.


	10. Chapter 10: Daisuke

In Japan (and China), places with more than four floors make it so that there isn't a fourth floor because four is bad luck. Soma, Kazuya, and Naoki live on the fourteenth floor of their building. Not only does that contain a four, because the fourth floor was skipped, it's technically floor 13. Yay for coincidences!

Remember when I said that I have a rule of having no two characters have names that start with the same letter? I forgot about Daisuke and Dracula. Whoops.

After this chapter, I'm out of ideas. Yes, I'm still going to do the Manticore/Mushussu and Yeti souls, but I don't know what I'll do with them.

Daisuke Higawa

Daisuke poked his head out the door. Good. No one there. He eased open the door, and then dragged out a large traveling bag. With great care to not make a sound, Daisuke shut the door, locked it, and then lugged the bag into the elevator. No one should be coming in at this hour. He hit the button for the ground floor. "Thank goodness I own a car," he muttered. He watched the numbers on the elevator count down…

 _Ding_.

Daisuke's heart plummeted faster than an elevator ever could. The number on the screen was a bright red fourteen. The guy who made really good curry, Soma Cruz, stepped onto the elevator. He looked tired and irritated, and he smelled like fish.

The next ten seconds were the longest of Daisuke's life. Soma didn't seem to think that seeing Daisuke out and about at this hour would be worth questioning, but Daisuke could only pray that was true. Every casual tilt of the head in his general direction made him break out into a cold sweat.

To Daisuke's horror, Soma said, "Is it just me, or does something smell in here?"

"It's you," Daisuke said quickly. Then he revised his statement. "It's just you. You're the only one who smells it."

At last, the elevator hit the ground floor. Daisuke tried to run out of it, but the bag was too heavy. He managed to drag it out of the elevator and into the lobby before he heard a voice behind him.

"Need some help with that?"

Daisuke almost screamed. "N-no. I have it…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes… I'm sure." Daisuke cleared his throat, but his voice came out fragile and stringy. "Good night, Cruz…"

It was that moment when the straps on the bag decided to break. Daisuke crouched down and tried to drag the bag backwards.

Soma lifted the other end of the bag. "It's that heavy?" he said. "Let me help."

"N-no!" shouted Daisuke. "I-I'm fine!" Daisuke tried to grab the bag back away from Soma, but it was too heavy and it slipped and crashed to the floor.

A single bloody, rotten human finger fell out of the bag.

Both Daisuke and Soma stared at it in horror. Soma was the first to break the silence. "What the hell is this?"

Daisuke looked at Soma, and then punched him in the back of the neck with a Cestus. He crumpled to the floor.

Contrary to Daisuke's expectations, Soma stood up, almost no worse for wear. "The hell?" he hissed, reaching into his coat for a weapon. "What were you thinking?! That could have killed me!"

"That's kind of the idea," said Daisuke, shaking and lifting his fists. What the hell was this guy? "I… You know too much."

"I don't know anything," said Soma, extremely irritated. "I have no idea what is going on."

There was a pause.

"You know what I mean," said Daisuke. "Now, if you don't swear that you'll-"

Soma threw a plate of curry in Daisuke's face.

Daisuke fell to the ground. He couldn't see anything behind the burning hot (thermal and spicy) and yet delicious curry, but he felt something leathery slap against his body. Scratch that, lots of leathery, high pitched things. Every time he tried to get to his knees, they bashed against him with surprising force. It didn't hurt much, but it was annoying.

"Daisuke?" Soma said in a voice less like 'hello mister serial killer please don't kill me' and more reminiscent of 'Tommy why is there applesauce all over my floor'. "Why is there a zombie in your bag?"

Daisuke wiped the curry out of his eyes. He saw Soma kneeling against the open bag. In his hands was a no longer human head. Daisuke's heart almost exploded. Soma kept up his eerily calm tone. "Yup, definitely a zombie. How did you get this, anyways?"

Daisuke tried to stand up, but a flock of bats swarmed him down. "Ack- get off of me!"

"If you tell me why there's a zombie in your bag, I'll let you go."

Soma did not expect Daisuke's next course of action. The lobby floor was tiled, uncarpeted, and most importantly, smooth. Daisuke launched himself at Soma by sliding and knocking him to the floor, allowing Daisuke to grab Soma into a choke hold. "I hate to do this, Cruz," he muttered, drawing a knife. "But I have to."

Daisuke did not expect Soma's next course of action. He turned into a bat, flapped out of Daisuke's arms, then turned back into a human right above Daisuke. After crushing Daisuke's lungs, Soma held Daisuke in his clutches and a giant scythe to his neck.

Daisuke heard Soma sigh. "All right, I have no idea what's going on. But if you're seriously trying to kill me, I might seriously try to kill you. I don't believe that either of us truly wants to kill one another, so can we talk it out? We can get ice cream or something."

Daisuke didn't say anything, so Soma continued, "I guess that you want to kill me because I know what's in the bag, right? I know that it's a zombie and not a random corpse. I don't know how you found a zombie, but you killed it and want to dispose of it. You can't get caught by anyone, because then they'll think that you killed someone. Don't worry, I won't tell."

Daisuke thought his options over and sighed. "I admit defeat. We'll talk. But you're going to have to pay for the ice cream."

Soma got off of Daisuke. The giant scythe vanished. "Now then," he said. "We'd better clean up before anyone else comes."

"Shouldn't we be worrying about the security cameras first?"

A flock of bats rammed into the security cameras.

"Very nice, but don't security cameras have a feed database or something?" said Daisuke.

Soma groaned. "Do you know where that is?"

"In the basement, I guess?"

"Never mind, I'll bribe Kazuya to deal with it." Soma texted someone on his phone. "Come to think of it, does he even know how to text? He's really low tech, especially for a super hacker."

Now that he was out of immediate danger of murder or discovery, Daisuke's mind began to process what was going on.

Soma Cruz, the wimp who made really good curry, found a human finger inside Daisuke's bag, and completely failed to scream, shout, or panic. It wasn't an adrenaline rush; he just didn't think that anything posed any danger to him. He dealt with the situation logically.

Soma knew that the thing in the bag was a zombie. Not a rotting corpse, but a zombie.

Soma not going to turn him in.

Soma didn't know what was going on, and wanted to fix that.

Soma was going to treat him to ice cream.

Soma had no reason to be out at this hour.

Soma _threw curry at him from nowhere, commanded a flock of bats, drew a giant weapon from nowhere, and turned into a bat._

Daisuke found a logical explanation for all this, but decided that there were too many people around to act accordingly. Instead, he acted according to common sense and started wiping the blood and curry off the (fortunately tiled and smooth) floors with some rags. "I need to get rid of the corpse," said Daisuke. "I know a good place to drop it off. We can talk in the car, and then get ice cream afterwards."

Soma agreed, and then they loaded the bag into the back of the car. "Why do you have a car?" Soma asked. "This is Japan. No one drives." [1]

"I like taking long drives along the mountains, and my parents are loaded," said Daisuke. _Keep the conversation casual_ , he told himself.

Soma was quiet for all of thirty seconds before he asked, "Come to think of it, you had a motorbike, too. Isn't both a car and a motorbike a bit excessive for a student?"

"I got it fixed," said Daisuke. "I need the bike for emergencies. It's more agile than a car, and I can't get trapped inside." _How Naoki managed to break it in two, I have no idea._

Daisuke and Soma got into the van. "So, why is there a zombie in your bag, anyways?" asked Soma.

 _Darn it_. Daisuke let out an irritated sigh. "All right, so you probably won't believe this."

"Just try," said Soma. "I bet 500 yen that it won't be the most ridiculous story I ever heard."

Daisuke let a smile crack despite himself. _Focus, damn you!_ "You're on. It all started last week…"

X

Daisuke Hikawa was a fighter through and through. He was versed in the art of the knife, the fist, the foot, the iron knuckle, the random sticklike object such as stop signs, and the half brick in a sock (he was a fan of Discworld). So when he heard about a shop that sold good street fighting weapons, he drove there right away.

"Welcome!" said the bald American guy. "You look like you could put my goods to very good use."

Daisuke grinned. "That's what I'm talking about. Show me the stuff, gramps."

The American whistled. "I guess Japanese people are really enthusiastic about baths."

There was a pause. "What?"

"Oh. Sorry. I thought you were talking about the bath products. Not that you need a shower or anything."

Daisuke cracked his knuckles. "I'm talking about the weapons, gramps!"

The American guy wasn't impressed. "Want to see my selection?"

The American guy showed Daisuke a bunch of weapons, ranging from knuckle dusters to swords to giant hammers. Daisuke was most interested in the fist weapons. "How much is that one?" he asked, pointing to the Cestus.

"8,000 yen," said the American. [2]

Daisuke's jaw dropped. "That's extortion."

"No, it's not. You don't have to buy it if you don't want to. But, if you're not interested, you can get these Brass Knuckles for 500 yen…"

"No thanks," said Daisuke. "I don't want a cheap set that would break on me in the middle of a fight. I'll take the Cestus."

The American guy shrugged. "Makes sense. Then again, do you think that the Cestus would last as long as fourteen of the Brass Knuckles? I mean, unless you air them out, they're going to start smelling from all that sweat."

"Just give me the Cestus, gramps."

X

"All right, buying an 8000 yen boxing glove is kind of ridiculous," said Soma.

"I'm not done," Daisuke sulked.

"Can we open the windows? We have a bloody corpse in the back. And I still have fish smell all over me."

"No!" said Daisuke. "The smell will get out. People will suspect us."

Soma shrugged. "You'll never get the stench out of the car. You'll have to hose, bleach, perfume, or burn the fabric."

"As I was saying, I'm not done," Daisuke said in what he thought was an icy tone, but turned out whiny.

X

Daisuke was very happy with his new weapon. However, he started noticing odd things about it.

First, whenever he put it on the table at night, he could hear weird moaning sounds. It stopped whenever he came near it, but it was eerie all the same. The closer it was to the ceiling, the louder the moans.

Second, the weapon was strong. Much stronger than it should have been. It made his punches hit more than twice as hard, which didn't make any sense. Sure, the material was hard, but the point of boxing gloves is to protect the hand so that the user is free to punch harder. They didn't generally make hits stronger on their own. As strong as Daisuke was, he highly doubted that he could punch hard enough to break a brick wall even if he didn't care about breaking his hand.

The final straw was earlier that day.

It happened that evening. Daisuke was minding his own business in his room, playing Pokémon, when he felt something weird in the air. It was as if he was in the presence of something powerful.

And then a zombie popped out of the Cestus.

Daisuke punched it to death. It went down surprisingly easily.

X

"… And then I shoved it into a bag, bleached the whole room, and convinced my roommates that it was another one of Naoki's pranks," said Daisuke. "I could have dumped the zombie out the window or something, but then the cops would come. So I decided to dispose of the corpse."

Soma's reaction was completely wrong. He should have been staring at Daisuke in disbelief, or at the very least just stare at him and say, "Stop joking" and start laughing nervously.

Instead, he just said, "So that's why someone flooded our room with rotten fish. Your roommates were trying to get back at us."

Daisuke gaped. "Aren't you… freaked out or anything?"

"Not really. Now where was this shop?"

Daisuke gave him the address. Soma just sighed. "I think I know what happened. It's probably my fault. Also, give me 500 yen. It's not the most ridiculous story I've ever heard. That honor belongs to the one Kazuya told me."

Daisuke grudgingly took out a 500 yen coin, taking note to ask Kazuya about his crazy story. Soma accepted it. Then Soma looked up. "Where are we?"

Daisuke had driven them deep into the mountains. The view was breathtaking. They had left the city far behind, leaving the stars bright. The moon was a lovely gibbous. The trees rustled in the wind, interrupted by the sound of animals.

"Help me with this, will you?" Daisuke lifted the corpse out of the back.

"Are digging it a grave or something?" asked Soma.

Daisuke nodded. "There are shovels in the back."

"Why do you have shovels?"

Daisuke glared at him. "Do you really want to know?"

After dealing with hordes of monsters, Death, the prospect of becoming Dracula, and Naoki, Soma scoffed at a delinquent's so-called 'death glare.' "No, not really," he said nonchalantly. "So, where are we burying this guy?"

Daisuke took a shovel from the back, and then indicated to the dirt road. "If we dig there, then we won't disturb any plants. Then once we bury it, I can drive over it several times."

As Daisuke pointed, Soma followed his finger. Behind his back, Daisuke pressed a special button on his watch.

The two of them set to work digging. "This is probably illegal," said Soma.

"Murder is illegal," said Daisuke. "And neither of us murdered anyone. Let's say that we're burying treasure."

"No, I mean digging up a public road."

"Shut up and dig. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get ice cream."

"I think that we might be better off having breakfast instead of ice cream," said Soma. "It's what, three in the morning?"

"Just shut up."

The two of the dug in silence.

"What kind of breakfast do you like?" asked Soma.

"Doesn't matter."

"Well, if we're going out, I'd like to know beforehand. Otherwise it's going to be fried fish or something."

About ten minutes passed before Daisuke asked, "Why were you trying to get out of the dorm, anyways?"

Soma glared at him. "You're the one who told me to shut up." He sighed. "Did you really think that I was going to stay in that dorm any longer than I had to? It smelled worse than the zombie. Naoki skipped out on us and went to stay at a motel. He said that his sense of smell was way too good, leaving me and Kazuya to deal with it. We spent hours trying to get the stench out. In the end, we couldn't. Kazuya told me to leave and he'd care of the rest. I was going to crash at someone else's place before I found you. I texted my host while we were in the car, to say that I would be late."

Daisuke gnashed his teeth. _Damnit, what's taking it so long? It should have been here by_ -

BOOM.

Well, that answers that question.

Soma gaped, which was the proper response. "What the hell is that?"

"Finally," Daisuke muttered. He ran towards his trusty mecha and jumped onto the platform that would take him to the cockpit. He took the controls into his hands and activated the action sequence.

Soma just stared. "I thought that nothing would surprise me at this point," he said.

The two story tall robot pointed at Soma. "I knew something was up with you," said Daisuke in the robot's voice. "All those weird powers you showed are proof. You command giant bats and turn into one. You make weapons and objects appear from nothing."

Soma sighed. "I'm actually kind of surprised no one else found out."

"The jig is up, Cyber Hell thug!"

There was a long silence.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb!" shouted Daisuke. "You're one of Cyber Hell's elite cyborgs, one of the Chaos Knights!"

Soma was completely lost at this point. "If there wasn't a giant red robot in front of me, I would think that you were delusional."

The robot shifted into a fighting stance. "Your modified body is no match for my Scarlet Sky Marauder Custom!" Daisuke roared. "Take this! MEGA THUNDER CRASH!"

X

"I still can't believe it took five minutes for you to trash my mecha," said Daisuke, taking a bite out of his fried fish and rubbing his freshly broken and repaired legs. Soma had broken both of them in the process of destroying his mecha, but gave him potions to heal them. Daisuke found instantaneous healing to be an odd sensation, and almost preferred the normal way. He decided that rubbing his raw neck would inflame the bite even more.

"What, you think that I could have done it in three?" said Soma. The two of them were sitting on a bench next to a 24 hour fish and chip shop. They were watching the morning sun vanquish the night.

"You know what I mean," said Daisuke.

Soma sipped his tea. "You're taking this surprisingly well," he said. "Your mecha is currently in pieces smaller than my head."

"Eh, it'll be all right," said Daisuke. "It fixes itself on its own. The scientists were sick of me and my team breaking the mechas with our hot blooded fights with Cyber Hell, so they spent several months making a repair program."

"That… is somehow clever and stupid at the same time," said Soma.

Daisuke took another piece of fish and crunched it. "Still, I've never seen modifications like yours. How long have you had them?"

"I told you three times, I'm not a cyborg; I have magic powers…"

Soma looked at Daisuke's expression. Daisuke had on his face the indulgent smile that older siblings had right before they corrected their young siblings. It was as if Daisuke was saying, "It's cute that you think that, but you're wrong."

Soma's knuckles tightened. "Daisuke, one hour ago, I found out that there's an evil organization made of cyborgs dedicated to world domination, and that the Japanese government has a secret agency dedicated to fighting them by getting high schoolers to pilot giant robots. Why can't you believe that I'm the reincarnation of Count Dracula and I have the power to devour the souls of my enemies? Hell, I drank your blood, and my broken arms healed themselves."

"You're a hyper advanced cyborg," said Daisuke. "A hyper advanced, _delusional_ cyborg that has the power to convert the blood of your victims into your own body parts by altering the genetic code. This works because red blood cells have no nuclei-"

"That's stupid," said Soma. "It's not limited to blood. I can heal myself by eating candles."

"If you were a vampire, wouldn't you burn in sunlight?"

Soma glared at him. "I told you, I'm the reincarnation of a vampire; I'm not actually one. And even if I was one, Dracula's so absurdly powerful that he can shake off sunlight." He sighed. "Come on, Daisuke. I ripped apart your mecha using a giant axe that I pulled from nowhere, an acidic water pistol, and a large plant woman. How do you explain that?"

"Nanomachines," Daisuke said completely seriously. "There are some that can use the hydrogen in the air to-"

Soma shoved a cat into his face. "Daisuke, I can make cats appear from nothing!" he shouted. "A living, breathing cat! How is that scientific?! It's clearly magic!"

The cat meowed, and scratched Daisuke. Soma pulled it back into his arms, where it purred happily.

"You're delusional," said Daisuke. "You stuffed a cat down your shirt."

"I rode a Nightmare into town because I refused to get into a car that smelled like dead bodies," said Soma. "I made a horse of shadowy night appear from the ether. There is no way I shoved a horse down my shirt."

"It was a machine made to look like a horse."

Soma stared at Daisuke, and then started to look from Daisuke's perspective. Daisuke had seen extraordinary things that were completely explained by technology, like cyborgs that healed people by pouring water from their hands. To him, Soma was someone whose powers were close enough to science to think that Soma was the one who was mistaken. It would be like Soma encountering a witch who claimed that her powers came from aliens.

"So what do you think I am, then?" asked Soma, rubbing the cat affectionately. "You know I'm not your enemy because I spared your life. We've at least established that I'm not a member of the Cyberdramon organization, but you say that I'm a cyborg?"

"You're clearly the son of a scientist," said Daisuke. "For some reason, your mother or father modified your body, and altered your memory to forget that fact. They were probably rogue scientists. Then, you encountered-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," said Soma. "This is stupid. I know lots of people who can disprove this story. And you're going to meet some of them."

Daisuke blinked. "Why?"

"Remember how I said that I knew why a zombie appeared in your bag?"

"It was an assassin sent by Cyber Hell," said Daisuke. "That American arms dealer-"

"Is a friend of mine," said Soma firmly. "Anyways, I called an emergency meeting at his shop. Something went wrong with the goods, and it's probably my fault."

X

Soma told Daisuke that both of them had to go to a meeting in the American guy's shop later, but that they also needed to get some sleep. Daisuke said that he didn't want to go meet his weird occultist friends, but Soma simultaneously bribed him with curry and threatened him with blood drinking. Soma then took the train to wherever he was sleeping, and Daisuke drove back to the dorm. It was Sunday, so none of them had classes.

Around noon, Soma called Daisuke and asked him if he was going to drive or take the train to the shop. "Are you kidding me?" said Daisuke. "The car smells like something died in there. I'm airing it out."

"Okay then," said Soma. "Let's take the train together, then. Don't say I told you so."

Soma had brought along Mina, the girl everyone knew to be his girlfriend but neither of them had the guts to admit it. Surprisingly, he also brought along a guy old enough to be his father.

"Daisuke, this is Julius," said Soma. "No, Leon, he can't see you."

Daisuke was temporarily distracted by shaking hands with Julius, but he noticed Soma's lapse all the same.

The train ride was awkward. Daisuke had no idea what he could say to anyone. It was a relief when they got to the shop.

The American guy was named Hammer. He remembered Daisuke from the last transaction, but didn't mind Daisuke's rudeness. "Hammer, this is Daisuke," said Soma. "He… well, he's the reason I called the meeting."

"Is he your friend?" asked Hammer in the way that adults ask whenever two young people hang around together.

"No," said Daisuke.

The shop was as small as Daisuke remembered it, and there was only one chair. So they had to improvise some with (empty) gun cases. The others chatted around, but most of them were more interested in each other than Daisuke.

Daisuke had expected Soma's occult meeting people to be either fellow students like Mina or weird guys like Hammer or Julius. So he wasn't expecting a pretty older woman to come in.

"Hi, Yoko," said Soma. "You're the last one to come."

"Hello, Soma," said the woman. "How have you been? I haven't heard from you since the incident with the girl's school."

Soma turned red. "Could we not talk about that one?"

Daisuke's thoughts on what could have happened to Soma in a girl's school must have shown on his face, because Soma said, "Nothing weird happened, Daisuke! I did not have to dress up like a schoolgirl to infiltrate the school!"

"You dressed up like a schoolgirl?" said Hammer. "Do you have any pictures?"

Soma turned red. "I just said that I didn't!"

"So everyone's here?" asked Yoko.

Soma sat down and nodded. "Yeah. I considered calling Arikado, but I kind of don't want to get him involved."

"You mean you don't want to get into trouble," said Mina.

"That too." Soma cleared his throat. "So, you're all wondering why I called you here. Yes, I know I didn't call you here, Leon, but you know what I mean. No, it's not that I don't want you here; I like you, but-"

"Is this normal?" Daisuke asked out loud. "Does Soma have an imaginary friend or something?"

Soma realized that everyone was staring at him. "Um… I never told Hammer or Yoko this, but the ghost of Leon Belmont hangs around Julius. Leon, this is Yoko Belnades—yes, as in Sypha Belnades—If she's Sypha's descendant, how does she not have Trevor's surname? Oh. Makes sense. And this is Hammer—no, I don't know his full name."

"Who is this 'Leon Belmont'?" Daisuke asked the person next to him, who turned out to be Hammer. Hammer just shrugged.

"He's my ancestor," said Julius. "Yoko's, too. He's been dead for almost a millennium, but that hasn't stopped him from hanging around watching my family ever since. Only Soma can see him."

"Sounds like he's scamming you," said Daisuke.

"We managed to prove it," said Julius.

Hammer looked at Julius, and then at Yoko. "So if Leon is both your ancestors, does that mean that you two are cousins or something?"

Julius shook his head, and Yoko shrugged. "Technically, yes, but our last recorded common ancestor lived almost three hundred years ago," [3] said Yoko. "For all intents and purposes, we're no more blood related than any two people you pick off the street at random."

"I see," said Hammer, as if slightly disappointed.

"By the way, Daisuke doesn't believe in the supernatural," said Soma.

Daisuke looked around for the hidden camera. "Have any of you, without a doubt-"

"I'm a witch," said Yoko. "When I was six, my grandmother taught me how to make ice appear from nothing whenever I was hot."

"I'm a vampire hunter," said Julius. "I was raised to kill monsters, and I've doing it for longer than you've been alive.

"I'm a miko," said Mina. "My family sealed a castle inside a solar eclipse, and they taught me how to heal people just by holding a conversation."

"And I'm… well, just a normal military guy who was magically transported to said castle located inside a solar eclipse," said Hammer. He sighed. "All of you are so _interesting_. If you're not a super powered monster killer, you come from a long line of them. All I have are my guns, a healer said to be a witch somewhere in my ancestry, and a basement full of tacky statues that my great grandparents couldn't sell off."

Daisuke was sorely tempted to say that he was the ace pilot of the FALCON group, but decided exposing their top secret organization to an occultist's support group would be a bad idea.

He looked at Soma. "So you're not delusional. You really are a vampire."

"Close enough," said Soma.

Daisuke shuddered. "This is kind of a lot to take in. I mean, magic? It's real? There's an entire world of things that I never knew-"

"At least you haven't been shoved inside a gigantic hell castle armed with only a rusty pocketknife," said Soma. Soma cleared his throat. "So… back to the main point. I guess you're wondering why I called you all here."

"Could you explain the situation?" said Julius. "I stayed up all night waiting for you to arrive, and when you finally knocked on my door several hours after you said you'd come, you just collapsed onto my couch without a word. Good thing you make really good pancakes and bacon, otherwise I might have thrown you out."

Soma nodded. "Sorry about that. It all started at Celia's castle-"

"No, why you called a meeting in the first place," said Julius. "It's good to know how it happened, but I'd like to know what we're talking about first. You tend to lose your audience before you make your point, Soma."

Soma sighed. "A little while ago, Daisuke bought a Cestus from Hammer's shop. Last night, a zombie popped out of it."

Daisuke was right. Soma's friends were weird. Normal people would scream at the idea of zombies. Mina and Julius had a 'carry on' expression, but Hammer and Yoko looked worried. Yoko raised her hand. "You all should know something before we move on," she said. "While we were in Celia's castle—you don't need to know who Celia is, Daisuke—Soma, Hammer, and we came up with a… not quite a scam. More like loophole exploitation. To begin with, I helped Soma fight his way through Celia's castle by enhancing his weapons using the souls he gathered. I took one soul and placed it into a weapon, making a new weapon in the process."

"Before you ask, Daisuke, I was not joking about the power to devour the souls of my enemies," said Soma. "And no, I have never done it on a human. Well, there was that one guy, but he doesn't count."

This did not reassure Daisuke in the slightest.

"Strangely enough, the weapons produced were often identical to my wares," said Hammer. "I realized that I could make a profit by taking weapons from manufacturers and selling the improved ones for more money. So the three of us made a deal. Soma would provide the souls, I would provide the weapons, and Yoko would fuse them together. When we got out of the castle, I was to sell the wares. Yoko and I would split the profits; Soma already got share back when we were in the castle."

"The Cestus used to be a set of Brass Knuckles, but I inserted a Zombie soul inside," said Yoko. "It must have gotten out somehow."

There was a pause.

"So you're saying that it's your fault?" asked Julius. "I mean, the fault of all three of you, not just you, Yoko."

"It might be," said Yoko. "But the key word is 'somehow.' It's not exactly easy to escape from a soul binding. Still, this could be a problem. Zombies are easy to kill, but not everything I put in those weapons is that weak. Daisuke, what happened right before the zombie came out?"

Daisuke explained.

"That doesn't help," said everyone except for Soma.

"I think that you're a real help," said Soma.

" _Thank_ you, Cruz," said Daisuke.

Soma turned to look at Daisuke, making it very clear that he was not facing him when he said his last sentence. "What? No, I was talking to Leon." Then Soma turned around to face a space ten inches away from Julius's head. "Yes, in front of everyone. No, I know I do deal with souls a lot, but you know more about stuff inside weapons. Sara and all that."

"Mind telling the rest of the class, Soma?" asked Mina, crossing her arms.

Soma sighed. "Okay. Leon has some experience with soul magic that I think we could use. I work with monster souls a lot, but my knowledge mostly instinctive and not much of a help right now. Delving into Dracula's memories is hardly ever safe, so I'm going to let Leon possess my body. Mina and Julius have already figured out two ways to undo the possession, so don't worry." Soma made a cream pie appear from nowhere. "If Leon gets too out of hand, shove it in my face."

Hammer whistled. "I've always wanted to do that. Can I do that?"

"Sure, but only if Leon needs to get out. The pie's dark magic hurts him. Mina knows a ritual that summons him out of my body, which is less painful for everyone involved."

Daisuke opened his mouth to say how ridiculous it was to have an exorcism via cream pie, before he realized that he lived in a world where evil organizations tried to take over the world with cow robots.

Soma got off of his gun case and lay down on the floor. Then he got up. "Hello, everyone," he said, but this time with a different tone of voice. "I'm Leon. Leon Belmont."

Everyone chorused their hellos, except for Daisuke. He just stared at Soma.

"You probably don't believe that I'm not Soma, do you," said Soma in that weird voice. "I understand. I didn't believe it at first when I found out that vampires were real. I thought it was an elaborate hoax set up by my brothers. Again."

Daisuke coughed. Soma Cruz being a vampire was strange. Soma Cruz being _nice_ to him was freaky. "Look, Cruz, I understand the whole thing with vampires and witches. But there's no way that you can prove that ghosts-"

"We've been over this," said Mina. "He knows things that Soma can't possibly know."

"But-"

"He translated an entire Latin document into coherent Romanian. He doesn't know a word of Romanian. If that's not supernatural, what is?"

"But Dracula is Romanian, so if he's Dracula's reincarnation-"

"Soma says, 'Oh, so now you believe that I'm Dracula's reincarnation? How convenient'," said Soma in that weird accent. "It's rather rude to talk about someone behind their backs."

"Leon also knew family secrets that Soma had no way of knowing," said Julius.

"Like what?" said Daisuke.

"Like the fact that because the house is in the middle of nowhere and we can't use telephone wires because we need to remain hidden from the world, whenever we want to use anything electronic we have to use a bike pedal generator that was somehow invented in the fifteen century," said Julius. "The diary said that the generator was built to power up an electric chair. That inventor was weird."

"My family lost many a video game save file to the limited capacity of the pedal," said Leon. "And Julius lost the one game of Mario Kart he almost won against his cousin Arthur because the TV blacked out at the last second."

Mina looked surprised. "If you didn't have any telephone wires, does that mean that you don't have a telephone?"

Julius nodded. "No landline, no cell phones, no television, no radio, no internet. No electronic trail. That was the decree of my grandparents. When I was a kid, everyone would sneak out into town to watch TV at a friend's house. It was always kind of awkward whenever I caught my aunts and uncles."

"While you were gone, the family considered installing wires and routers, but in the end it was too expensive," said Soma. "Good thing, because there is still a chance that Mathias could come back. Yes, Soma, I do trust you. But precautions."

"Unfortunately, because I had no way to contact my family to tell them I wasn't dead, I had no choice but to trek through the—I had no choice but to inform them by ringing the doorbell and saying that I was their long lost relative," said Julius. "My grandnephew dumped Holy Water on me from the third floor because he thought that I was a monster, and then my grandniece threw knives at me because she thought I was a stranger who wanted to kidnap her. We somehow managed to get it all sorted out when my younger brother turned up with a machine gun. But I caught a cold from being locked out of the house in the—cold for several hours."

"I did tell my children and grandchildren to have a healthy level of paranoia," said Soma, nodding sagely. "By the way, did you lift the communication ban?"

"I didn't," said Julius.

"Wait, what about emergencies?" said Hammer. "What would happen if there was a fire or an accident? You couldn't call the firemen or an ambulance."

"We do have systems and procedures for emergencies, but I'd rather not go into details," said Julius. "We can't risk Dracula exploiting them."

Daisuke realized that he didn't know enough about Julius's family to really confirm whether they were telling him the truth or trying to see how much of a sucker he was. He really had no way of confirming any of these stories. "All right, I'll stop saying that I don't believe you," he said. "I'll take your word for it; you have the proof."

"Fair enough," said Soma—Leon. "So you're Yoko Belnades?" Leon walked over to Yoko. "For something like six hundred years of separation, you look surprisingly like Sypha. Something about the ears. You used soul magic? Very impressive. I don't think anyone has used it for centuries. Except for Mathias and Soma, of course."

Yoko was surprised by her ancestor's friendliness, but took it in stride. "Thank you," she said. "I found the technique in an old book. You know, I expected you to be a bit more… harsh."

Leon shrugged. "Almost all of my descendants have said that when we meet. They think that I'll be disappointed in them."

"Who is this 'Mathias' guy?" asked Hammer.

"He calls himself Dracula, but I call him Mathias," said Leon.

"You mean Dracula isn't Vlad the Impaler?" Hammer interrupted, but Leon gave him a sad look.

"It's a long story, and I don't care to delve into it right now."

"Could we get back to the main topic?" asked Mina. "Yoko, Leon, do you know anything relevant about souls inside objects? Or removing them? I heard from Soma that you could remove the monster souls from him, Yoko. Is this any different?"

"I can extract a soul from a person, but only under abnormal circumstances," said Yoko. "It's only ever been with Soma and his monster souls, and never with objects. I found that the souls are bound to his soul rather than his body, so they're also relatively loosely attached to his body. I can draw them out fairly easily, especially because Soma isn't pulling them back."

"In general, there are two ways a soul could be bound to a vessel," said Leon. "They can be compatible or incompatible. It is relatively easy to separate an incompatible soul and vessel; Mina managed to separate my soul from Soma's body with a simple summoning ritual. I couldn't get out on my own because I'm not yet used to possession. Laugh at me if you will. Compatible vessels are rare, but it is almost impossible to sever the link without extreme trauma such as death. Of course, destroying the vessel is the surest way of releasing the soul. Soma says that he has only ever dominated a soul after killing the body."

"I think I read something about this in Trevor's diary," said Julius. "He said that apparently, the only people who could be Dracula's vessel are Devil Forgemasters. And… well, Soma. Every other time he's been resurrected, he used his original body. Somehow."

"The criteria for compatibility with living beings are usually very strict," said Leon. "My soul fragment inside of Julius isn't… well, to put it into words that would make sense, it's small enough to bypass the guards, so it doesn't have to fulfill any criteria. And before you ask, I have no idea why Mathias can only use Devil Forgemasters as vessels."

"And how is this relevant?" asked Mina.

"It's because the weapons I sealed the souls into were all compatible with the souls," said Yoko. "That's why I could only match one type of soul with one weapon. Objects have looser requirements than living things. I wouldn't say that it's impossible to remove a soul from a compatible vessel, but it is certainly very hard."

Daisuke looked from Yoko to Leon. He really had no idea what they were talking about.

"Soma would also like to add that the raw souls that he's encountered are generally inert," said Leon. "He says that can summon monsters using their souls, but creating their bodies and weapons takes magic from his own store. So having a soul released shouldn't make a monster appear from nothing like what happened with Daisuke."

"The souls I extract generally disperse into the ether," said Yoko. "They regain their power and bodies over time, but hardly ever at once. Come to think of it, just discarding the souls of giant monsters with no safeguards is very irresponsible."

"So whatever happened, it must have been strong enough to pull the soul out of the object, which even Yoko can't do," said Mina. "Not to mention that it made a body for the zombie. Whoever is doing this must be powerful."

"The problem is, we don't know what could do that," said Julius. "Off the top of my head, I would say that Dracula could be doing it…"

"Except Soma is right here," said Leon. "And he says that he hasn't been up to anything. Mathias is a devious one. But I know him. He wouldn't try anything like this. Not only does it arouse our suspicions, but making one zombie appear does absolutely nothing for him. And he has other, more efficient ways to terrorize people."

This persuaded everyone but Daisuke. "Unless… this Mathias guy is doing this because he knows that you won't suspect him at all, and this is all part of his secret plan to-"

"That's stupid," said Mina.

Leon just looked sad.

Julius cleared his throat. "So we need to figure out what could have happened to make the zombie come out of the weapon. All we know is that it happened inside the dorm, and that whoever did this is very powerful. And that's our only lead. Any ideas?"

"We could ask Kazuya," said Leon.

"Who?" said Yoko.

"You know, Soma's roommate. He's a demon summoner. He knows a lot about summoning. Maybe he could help."

Daisuke remembered Kazuya only vaguely as a slightly annoyed face behind a computer screen. He couldn't imagine Kazuya dressing up in black robes and chanting to the Dark Masters before black candles. Then again, he couldn't imagine Soma Cruz dressing up in opera capes and breaking into the houses of maidens to drink their blood.

"All right, you do that," said Yoko, just as skeptical as Daisuke. "In the meantime… what can we do?"

Hammer raised his hand. "Should I do a recall on all the goods I sold?"

"Probably not," said Julius. "It's one isolated incident. If it happens again, do a recall. If not… well, it's probably safe. Probably. Does anyone else have any questions?"

"What happened to the zombie?" asked Mina.

"We buried… crap," said Daisuke. "We drove into the mountains and tried to bury it, but we got distracted."

"Distracted by what?" asked Mina.

"Um… Do I have to answer this?" asked Daisuke. A fight between a superpowered vampire and a giant robot would certainly distract anyone from corpse disposal.

Fortunately, Leon came to the rescue. "Soma says that it's a secret and he promised that he wouldn't tell," said Leon. "He also wants to say that nothing untoward happened and to remove your heads from the gutter."

"Wouldn't it have been a better idea to just burn the corpse?" said Julius. "Cut it to pieces, burn them, and then scatter them all through the mountain? I mean, when it comes to vampires that aren't Dracula, I generally try to bury them upside down in coffins filled with poppy seeds underneath crossroads. But not for zombies."

"Or you could dump it off a pier," said Hammer. "Then again, piers generally have people around, so you'll probably get caught."

"Let the vultures take care of it," said Yoko. "Or watch some mafia movies for ideas."

"Break the bones into small pieces with a hammer, and then stick it into a burner," said Mina. "The bones would be too small to identify as bones."

"Soma says that he would drink the corpse dry, and then set it on fire repeatedly because he has half a dozen souls that give him the power to set things on fire," said Leon. "He says that he can turn bones into ash. But if it were me, I would sneak it into a cremation facility. They're actually equipped to do that, and it's more respectful."

"Remind me not to get on your bad sides," said Daisuke. If he had the sanction of FALCON, he would probably cart it off to the scientists to dissect. Or immolate it in rocket fuel.

"All right, then," said Mina. "Meeting adjourned?"

No one said anything, so the meeting ended.

"Do you have anything else to say, Leon?" Hammer asked Leon.

Leon shook his head. "No, nothing."

And then Hammer threw the pie in Leon's face.

Soma's body burst into flames, and fell to the floor. Moments later, the dark fires vanished and the body sat up. "I thought I said that the pie was a weapon of last resort," he grumbled. "It's me, Soma. Hammer, if you ever do that again…"

"Sorry, but I've always wanted to do that," said Hammer. "I had no idea that you'd be… There's a sink in the back if you want to wash the cream out."

"I was going to say that anyone who sets me on fire on purpose owes me dinner," said Soma. "And yes, I have had to enforce this rule before."

Daisuke saw Soma and Julius's eyes meet, and then wondered how they were still friends.

Soma headed for the back. "I'm actually pretty surprised that coat of his hasn't gotten stained by now," said Yoko. "Given all the monster blood and guts he's been wading through."

"Stained? I'm surprised that it hasn't been destroyed," said Hammer. "Anyways, want to go get ice cream?"

X

When Soma got back to his dorm, Kazuya's demons were scrubbing every surface. The Devil Summoner himself was writing some program. The stink was pretty much gone.

"The fish was all Daisuke's fault," said Soma.

"Tell me something I didn't know," said Kazuya, not bothering to look up. "Why did you ask me to clear the tapes?"

"A zombie appeared, Daisuke killed it, and the security cameras caught Daisuke lugging out its remains. If the cops got their hands on that footage, then they'd think that the zombie is an actual human corpse. Well… technically it is, but that's not the point. As much as a jerk he is, he doesn't deserve to be arrested for a murder he didn't commit."

Kazuya stopped typing, and stared at Soma in horror. "I think I know what's going on, and it's probably my fault."

X

Shinsuke Higawa, director of FALCON, and Genya Arikado, senior agent of the Agency of Supernatural Investigation, were sitting down on a bench in front of the river. They were eating cookies and feeding the ducks.

"I thought that we were the only secret government organization," said Shinsuke. "I never would have imagined that there was a supernatural one in addition to the one with giant robots. What's next, aliens?"

Arikado said nothing, and threw more bread at the ducks. The ducks waddled away from him in fear.

Shinsuke cleared his throat. "Listen, I'm sorry about shooting you. And… messing up your sting operation. We mistook you for Cyber Hell spies trying to make a weapon deal."

"I apologize for blowing up your helicopter," said Arikado. "We couldn't allow anyone to escape. And then… well, the situation escalated."

Shinsuke sighed. "I couldn't believe that we almost killed each other. We thought you were Cyber Hell, you thought we were a militaristic cult…"

"I had no idea that technology had progressed to the point where giant robots were plausible," said Arikado. Something about the way he phrased that made Shinsuke suspicious.

Shinsuke's phone rang. He took the call. After a few minutes of distressing news, he said goodbye and hung up. He picked up his bag. "Looks like I'm going to have to leave you. There was a report of a series of grisly and impossible murders that could only have been done by cyborgs."

Arikado put down his phone. "It is probably not a coincidence that I just heard that same report," he said. "Except my contacts say it could only have been done by demons."

For a long moment, the two of them sat in knowing silence, sharing the solidarity of adults who often have to deal with the absurd.

"Whoever is right about this gets treated by the other for dinner."

"I accept."

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] No one drives in Japan: I read that it's uncommon for Japanese people to drive. Then again, it might just be relative. I'm American, so I drive everywhere.

[2] The cost of the Cestus: I know that it's more than what Hammer asks for, but in the game Hammer explicitly says that he gave Soma a discount. While in the last chapter Hammer said he gave Soma a discount because he was a kid, more specifically it was 'Soma is a kid inside a gigantic chaos castle full of monsters.' In DoS, it's more because he and Soma are friends. Daisuke doesn't get either of those because he doesn't need the weapons as much as Soma did. I do think that $80 for a boxing glove is ridiculous… but if it lets you punch through walls, probably worth it.

[3] Yoko and Julius's last common ancestors lived three hundred years ago: that would be Juste's grandparents. Juste's mother was a member of the Belnades family, and his aunt or uncle is Yoko's ancestor. So Juste's mother's parents are common ancestors to Julius and Yoko. Originally, I said that the last common ancestors were Sypha and Trevor, but then I remembered Juste. Then again, it's not impossible for Yoko's line and Julius's to not intersect since Trevor and Sypha's time.

By the way, the Belmont family mansion is located deep in the mountains. The emergency system for fires is a spell that teleports a lot of Holy Water into the room when intense heat is detected. The exception is the library and places where water could do more damage than fire ever could, in which it has a system that dumps a lot of sand all over the place. The emergency system for accidental injury that requires hospitalization is a teleporter that transports people into a specific room in a hospital. Julius doesn't want to mention this because there is a chance that this knowledge might be abused to get into the house. As for general crime… well, if the Belmonts can't deal with it, then the cops probably can't. Actually, the Belmonts really come across as a mafia family. Inside the house, there is no law.

The two ideas behind this story came from two other story ideas. The first was that like in my file of DoS, Soma bought cheap weapons from Hammer, upgraded them with Yoko, and then sold them back to Hammer. Then some unwitting kid bought those weapons, and then the monster soul inside it went loose.

The other idea comes from a non-fanfiction. I wanted to make a story where there's a high school that has all these people with secrets… except none of them know about each other. Everyone thinks that they're the only abnormal person in school, and that everyone else is normal. Their weirdness isn't limited to one genre, either; there's a Magical Girl, an exorcist, a half demon girl, a witch, a psychic, a mecha pilot, a ninja, people in some secret government organization, someone who tames monsters like in Pokémon, and a whole bunch of other people. They somehow are so good at hiding that none of them catch on. The main character is the only normal person in his class, who knows all of everyone's secrets because they all designate him as their 'normal friend they need to stay grounded'. The main character is immune to mind manipulation, which means that no one can erase his memory.


	11. Chapter 11: Hammer Time

Yeah, the night after I posted that I ran out of ideas, I came up with new ones.

Just for clarity: The characters are only pulled from the SMT and Castlevania universes. SMT subseries such as Persona or Devil Survivor count as SMT (I've only played Persona, though). I would include LoS if A) I knew more about it, B) it wasn't so hated by fans, and C) it wasn't both too different and too similar to the original Castlevania. Similar like having the same characters, but different like Dracula not being Mathias and Cornell being evil. Daisuke is an OC. There are several reasons why this is so.

First, if Daisuke were a character of a well known franchise like, say, Kouji Kabuto, then I'd have to give more accurate power levels. That would mean a lot of research and scaling, and it would mean that I lose the 'you beat me in five minutes' gag. I don't think that I would really put in a character that I like and then have him or her get beaten up so easily.

Second, I only want to have characters from one or two franchises. Otherwise, it would be a huge crossover and while those can be fun, it isn't really for those who aren't fans of every series I insert. It will feel like the characters that do show up are either stealing the show or not getting enough screentime. However, random, one mention cameos don't count and can come from anywhere.

Third, it messes with the plot. Having giant robots and evil organizations be public knowledge would really rearrange the protagonists' priorities. Upon finding out the other character's superpowers, I can imagine that they'd also come up with defense plans now that they know that they can stand up to the evil organizations without having to hide it from each other.

Fourth, it gives me more freedom. I'd normally have to do a lot of research on how the entire series works. I can do things that would otherwise contradict canon, I can set up more stuff with the secret organization, and I can make Daisuke more of a jerk than I feel comfortable with than with a canon character. I don't think I could make Kazuya a loudmouth brawler even if he is a silent protagonist with no set personality, but an OC is fair game.

Fifth, I just think that the joke with Daisuke revealing himself as a robot pilot is funnier if you don't see it coming.

I thank LuciferXIII Trollkaiger Green for helping me come up with the idea for this chapter, getting me out whenever I get stuck, and for keeping the stories accurate.

To Heika: I thought that after killing Menace, all the souls Dmitrii absorbed did go into Soma, but they were expelled almost immediately afterwards. So Soma didn't get anything. Even if he did, we don't know what souls they were or what powers they have, so there's no material I can work with. It's implied that those souls would turn Soma into Dracula, since they're the same color as in the bad ending. I thought they were human souls since they were also the same color as when Dmitrii killed himself. But it's more plausible that Celia dropped Dmitrii into a portal or summoned a ton of high level demons for him to kill. Soma has Bat Company because you get boss souls automatically (unless you're playing the no soul run).

Also to Heika: When I said 'immunity to blood borne diseases', I meant as in diseases that are spread from person to person through blood transfers, mosquitoes, etc. It's so that vampires can't catch diseases by ingesting other people's blood. If the disease is contracted by something other than by blood, the vampire can catch it.

Again to Heika: All right, I haven't played Portrait of Ruin. So I didn't know about the spell. I'll check that out (to let out my self-justifying side, Leon is not in a position to know about Wind).

Soma, Mina, and Julius didn't know about Sara being the Vampire Killer until Leon told them. The flash forward in Chapter 3 where Soma, Mina, and Julius react to finding that out is directly to Chapter 7, after Leon tells them. Up until meeting Leon, they were still reading about his Crusade days.

As for the holy-elemental Vampire Killer… difference between light magic and holy objects? A light spell is holy elemental, but it's also not really holy as in blessed with religion. The Vampire Killer has the element but wasn't blessed like crosses or holy water (unless it was at some point, in which case I'll change it).

As for your last question… could you elaborate what you mean? Did Dracula make his body with alchemy every time he revived? Why does Soma need Dracula's memories? He already has a body.

Thank you for taking the time to correct me. I like explaining things, but I also want to stay within canon.

Disclaimer: I am not a programmer. And I am not in the military, either. I have not passed the bar exam.

I'll try to not have Kazuya steal the show.

Hammer Time

Kazuya looked uncomfortable sitting in a room with everyone staring at him. He nibbled on his chocolate bar awkwardly. "You heard from Soma that zombie was my fault. It's true."

"Leon said that you're a demon summoner," said Julius. "I'm tempted to lecture you on how dangerous summoning is, but that's not the point right now."

"If it's about 'do not call anything that you cannot put down,' I have that covered," said Kazuya. "I can kill anything I summon." Julius gave him a skeptical look, which Kazuya matched.

Hammer took a good look at Kazuya. "Is that why you mentioned you had a ton of guns? You would think that a guy who summons demons would try to banish them to the nine circles of hell instead of filling them with lead."

Kazuya shook his head. "I can't use magic."

"Then how do you summon demons?" asked Yoko.

Kazuya reluctantly took out his laptop. "I can summon demons with a program called the Demon Summoning Program. Yes, I know that it's not a very imaginative name. Don't worry; no one else has this program as far as I know."

Before anyone could stop him, Kazuya typed in a summoning sequence. There was a flash of light, and…

"Bowwow! Bowwow!"

"This is my dog, Pascal," said Kazuya, rubbing the blue and white dog affectionately. "He used to be a regular dog. Now he can turn into a demon. Please don't tempt me into showing you. He's really a giant fire breathing blue lion, and I don't want to burn down the shop."

"So you summoned the zombie?" asked Mina.

Kazuya shook his head. "I won't go into specifics, but… my program can only summon demons that I made a contract with. I didn't summon that zombie. I summoned a demon that could summon zombies. I summoned the demon Nebiros, of the Ars Goetia."

There was a pause that should have been dramatic, but instead was filled by everyone else waiting for him to explain. "Mind filling us in on that?" asked Daisuke. "I left my book of demonology at home."

"I always knew that Shinto was real, so I spent all my monster research looking up Japanese demons," said Mina. "I didn't think much about non-Japanese monsters until recently. What about you, Yoko?"

Yoko shrugged. "I don't know, either. I read up on all kinds of monsters, but I'm not good with demons that I haven't fought."

"I know that Nebiros is a demon that deals with necromancy," said Julius. "That's pretty much all I know."

"Nebiros (has a ton of different spellings that I don't want to go into right now) is the twenty-fourth demon of the Ars Goetia," said Hammer. "Commands nineteen legions of demons, and makes people eloquent… What? After hanging around with you guys in two giant evil castles, I figured that reading about demons would help me survive next time I come with you. I still haven't figured out if you were joking about wall climbing."

"No one forced you to stay, Hammer," said Soma. "I said it was too dangerous the second time around."

"You're right about Nebiros," said Kazuya. "I don't know about wall climbing or how much you can handle. I… I've had a bad experience with Nebiros and Belial. I don't like to talk about it. It's nothing that can destroy the world like you being Dracula, but it's personal."

"Then why did you summon it?" asked Mina.

Kazuya looked embarrassed. "You know how half the time I'm on the computer?"

"Yes," said Soma and Mina in unison.

"Your addiction is either impressive or disturbing," said Daisuke. "Weren't you programming while on the toilet?"

"Yes, and then you barged in on me to beat up Soma," said Kazuya icily. "And then Naoki pulverized you." He continued without a hint of embarrassment. "Anyways, I usually spend my time programming, doing homework, playing Eternal Punishment Online, or trying to crack the program."

"You play Eternal Punishment Online too?" asked Julius.

"Yes, actually," said Kazuya. "I know it's weird for a demon summoner to play a video game where my class is Monster Tamer."

"I'm on there, but I'm a Demon Slayer," said Julius. "And I'm a professional vampire hunter."

"Busman's holiday, eh?" said Hammer. There was a pause. "It means that on your days off, you still do the same things that you do at work. It comes from the fact that when a busman goes on a trip, he takes a bus the same way he does at work. Why do I even bother with using non-Japanese expressions?"

"I'm a Rogue, and Yoko is a Berserker," said Mina. She turned to Daisuke and Soma. "Do you two play?"

"No, too busy," said Soma.

"Same here," said Daisuke.

"Not into those kinds of games," said Hammer.

"I play on Julius's computer sometimes," said Leon. "Whenever they go over to his building for experiments, I borrow Soma's Bat to play on the computer. It's surprisingly addictive. I'm a Dark Knight." Soma relayed that.

"Let's exchange usernames sometime," said Kazuya. "But back on the topic of the zombie. The Demon Summoning Program is a really weird program and has a ton of black boxes. So I've been trying to crack it for several—years. All I've got so far was a little insight on how it works. Apparently, it translates all the chants, runes, and sacrifices in normal summoning rituals into code and then makes the computer run through those things like a program."

"That doesn't sound right," said Yoko. "You can't just say a lot of words and expect a demon to appear. And you can't just use data as a sacrifice."

Kazuya shrugged. "That's what I mean by 'I don't know how it works.' Although for some reason, demons accept cash as sacrifices. Heck, some of them accept petty cash as bribes. I convinced my Brownie to join with pocket change."

"I've read about a demon that sold items to travelers inside Castlevania just because he needed money," said Julius.

"Let me guess, it was in your ancestor's diary?" said Mina.

"No, it came from the journals of other travelers," said Julius. "One of my… ancestors? Is there a word for someone in your family who lived a long time ago who you are not descended from? Like your great uncle, except instead of being your grandfather's brother he's your ancestor's cousin's kid."

No one had a word. "Regardless, one of the Belmonts who left the safehouse ended up running an inn, and he bought the journals from people who ventured through Castlevania," said Julius. "One of those people did happen to be related to the Belmonts, but not of the clan proper. All of those travelers described a demon named Renon who sold them stuff."

"That sounds like something a demon might do," conceded Kazuya.

"All right, assuming that your computer has the power to simulate rituals by substituting money for sacrifice and code for chants, that still doesn't make sense," said Yoko. "Rituals aren't universal. You can't expect to summon Mephistopheles and Belial the same way."

"You're right, every demon has its own unique ritual," said Kazuya. "The program stores the specific ritual for every demon I have a contract with. You wouldn't believe the amount of memory those rituals take up."

Hammer let out a snort before Kazuya glared at him. "I'm not laughing at you, it's just… a summoning ritual, cut short by limited memory. It's kind of absurd."

Kazuya grumbled. "It is absurd, but it's no less annoying. I had to delete all my files to make room for more demons before I discovered the wonders of flash drives."

"You store demons rituals on flash drives?" asked Daisuke incredulously. He had no idea that the FALCON scientists did the same with vital mecha upgrade data. Or that he would be spending the next thirty-six hours tracking down Cyber Hell cyborg ninjas who would steal said flash drives and then accidentally drop them down a sewer line.

"Yes, and I have several emergency drives," said Kazuya. "No one can use them without running the program, so it's safe if they get stolen."

"The summoning program is like a phone, and the rituals are like a really long number," said Mina. "It's safe to have the number as long as you don't have a phone. But can we get back to Nebiros?" [1]

"All right," said Kazuya. "So I wanted to verify my findings by seeing if I could install a ritual manually. I found some rituals on the internet for summoning demons (yes, what you find on the internet can be freaky), and I checked it with the ones I already had. I did some cross referencing and modified an existing ritual for a demon I already had to another ritual. It worked. I ended up summoning Nebiros."

"And?" asked Daisuke. "What happened next?"

"We had an argument," said Kazuya. "You don't need to know the details. Then he declared that he would unleash a zombie apocalypse. And then I beat the crap out of him and threw him back into the portal. I guess he was trying to cast the spell while I was stabbing him with my violin."

There was a pause. "So the whole panic was just about you summoning a demon and screwing up?" said Julius.

"I assume so," said Kazuya.

Quick as a flash, Daisuke tried to punch Kazuya in the face. Kazuya dodged within a hair's breadth. "Wait… I deserved that, didn't I?"

Daisuke nodded.

"All right. Just this once."

Daisuke struck Kazuya with a blow that should have broken his nose, but just pushed Kazuya back. Kazuya came back up. "Is that all you got?"

Daisuke whaled on Kazuya, who didn't seem to care.

Soma raised his hand nervously. "If you say the program can simulate rituals, does that mean that it is possible to recreate the ritual that revives Dracula early?"

Kazuya shook his head. "I've only ever used this program for summoning. You can't summon a demon that's dead. It's only possible to revive them with outside means."

"But just because it's meant for summoning doesn't mean that it can't do anything else," said Mina. "You said it yourself. It's an emulator that can accommodate any summoning ritual. Why can't it be used for any other ritual?"

Kazuya opened his mouth to retort, and then realized her point. "In that case, it might be possible to use the program to revive Dracula. However, it might be much more trouble than it's worth. What is the ritual, anyways?"

Yoko shook her head. "There are several, actually, and all of them have been lost to the ages. Our ancestors didn't want Dracula reviving early, so they destroyed the documents. They did record some of the things that the rituals required, such as virgin sacrifices, but other than that, we know nothing."

"I know one," said Leon. "I followed Simon around when he tried to revive Mathias. I know it's hypocritical, but Mathias cursed Simon so that Mathias would revive in Simon's body once he died, so Simon had to resurrect Mathias."

"I thought you said that besides me, only Devil Forgemasters could be Dracula's vessel," said Soma after relaying that to the others.

Leon shrugged. "Maybe Mathias found a loophole? Whoever told Simon that was lying? Everyone lied to Simon back then (except for the part with laurels in soup; that really does enhance the smell). Neither of us wanted to take any chances. And it worked out in the end. Also, that ritual requires gathering Mathias's body parts."

Soma was halfway through relaying that before Julius stopped him. "Let's not tell the world how to revive its worst enemy," said Julius.

Kazuya shrugged. "Point taken. I could probably simulate virgin sacrifice with Macca, or better yet, Magnetite. But it's unlikely that anyone would use the program because A) as far as I know, the only ones who have this program are me and the creator, and I don't know where he is or if he's even in this dimension, B) the only way to install a ritual is to know the program inside out, and considering that it took me years to get this far, that's unlikely, and C) you need to know the ritual inside out anyways, so why not just do that instead of fiddling with a program?"

"So no early revival that way," said Soma. "Good to know."

"And if I wanted to destroy the world, I would be more efficient about it," said Kazuya, looking directly at Julius.

"Speaking of demon summoning, can you help me with something, Julius?" asked Hammer.

"Depends," said Julius.

"Wait here." Hammer went into the back and took out a box. "Could you translate these notes?"

"What language are they in?"

"Heck if I know. Not English or French."

Hammer pulled out a three ring binder. Julius took a look at the first page. "It's in old Romanian. It starts with a note that says that anyone who is not the owner of the statues passed along the writer's family will be cursed with misfortune upon reading this document. And it says that the caster of the hex is a witch. Could you look at this, Yoko?"

Yoko turned over the paper and found a complex and aesthetically pleasing rune that covered half the page. "It appears to be the oldest and most powerful hex known to man, the Curse of Calamity. It doesn't take effect right away, but it inflicts many misfortunes upon the victim. It doesn't stop there, either. It remains inside the victim for the rest of their life."

"Good to know. Can you remove it?" asked Julius.

"It's just a placebo with no magic. The whole hex is just the paranoia that comes with defying a witch. The next bit of bad luck that inevitably happens to the victim is automatically blamed upon the witch's curse. It's the first spell I learned. However, one of those papers holds a binding contract. I'll take that one out."

Julius turned the next page and read silently. Yoko read her single page slowly.

"Anything?" asked Hammer.

"It's a letter to a man named Roy from his grandfather," said Julius.

"What does it say?"

"Other than that this is his grandfather's will and that they love each other, nothing. Just let me read."

Daisuke stood up, breathing hard from punching a guy in the face a hundred times. "If you don't need me, I have to go park my robot." In a lower voice he whispered to Soma, "I'm actually investigating that blonde girl with the headphones. I think she's a cyborg."

"I'm going to get some ice cream," said Kazuya, uninjured despite being punched in the face a hundred times.

"Actually, could you stay?" said Hammer. When both Daisuke and Kazuya froze, Hammer added, "Kazuya. I think I'll need your help."

Kazuya looked suspicious. "What do you need me for?"

"Um…"

"I'm done with the letter," said Julius, giving Hammer a look that demanded answers.

"I've finished reading the binding spell," said Yoko at the same time. She and Julius looked at each other. "You go first," she said. "I don't have any context for why this spell is necessary."

Julius nodded and continued glaring at Hammer. "It says that this Roy person inherited a lot of statues from his grandfather, Hector. And these statues are apparently demons that Hector forged. Hector was too attached to these 'Innocent Devils' to kill them, and he could not let them go either because they would wreak havoc upon the countryside. So he turned them to stone and then gave them to Roy."

Soma jerked up. "Hector? I know that name! He's the one who… it's on the tip of my tongue…"

"Don't tap into Dracula's memories," Mina warned.

"No, I know Dracula knew him, but it's not like that. I remember hearing that name fairly recently…"

"Soma," said Leon. "Hector is-"

"My point is, why do you need to know what this says?" said Julius, cutting off his ancestor. "Why do you suddenly need to ask me about this?"

Hammer looked uncomfortable. "Well, you see…"

X

After quitting the military, Hammer had moved into his grandmother's house. She had moved to Japan's countryside years before, and when Hammer was stationed there, he made sure to visit her whenever he could. She had enjoyed the visits, and often gave him cake and showed him her collection of ugly cats and statues. Hammer often requested to see the statues partially because he found them somehow enthralling, and partially because the cats were vicious biters.

Hammer's grandmother told him that the statues were priceless antiques from the fifteenth century, chiseled by one of their ancestors. He had left specific instructions that they were not to be separated, which led to their ancestors claiming that he got them from fairies or a contract with the Devil. Hammer's grandmother had shown him the box containing his instructions, and noted that the parchment had not disintegrated even after centuries of lying in a box. She added that only the ones who owned the statues were allowed to read the letters inside. When she was a girl, times were tough and her parents had put her and her siblings through school by selling as many of those statues as they could. There used to be over seventy of them, but now there were less than half of that. The ones that were left were the creepy and ugly ones.

When Hammer's grandmother died some time ago, she had left the house and everything in it (except for the cats; they went to his cousin Melissa) to Hammer. That included the statues.

Hammer was tempted to sell the statues on the internet, but was afraid that it would be disrespectful to his grandmother and kept them. After going through Castlevania, he decided that maybe there might be some truth to the 'chiseled from fairy-stone' tale that his grandmother had told him. It might not be safe to defy the wishes of his ancestor any more than his great grandparents already had. So he was stuck with thirty ugly statues that he swore could hear breathing at night.

Last week, a thief broke into Hammer's house. Hammer had beaten her up with a sword, but in the process accidentally knocked over one of the statues.

The statue shattered on the marble floor, but then turned into black smoke. The smoke then formed into a red devil thing that started jumping around and hitting everything it could see except for the other statues. Hammer and the thief had both panicked at the sight of a monster appearing from nothing, and they hit it with hammers until it was dead. After that, Hammer and the thief had gone into the kitchen for cake, ice cream, and alcohol. They both agreed that they were lucky to be alive, and Hammer ultimately let her go after she saw the error of her ways.

The next day, Hammer had thought the events of last night were a dream until he saw the shattered remains of the demon. He then rushed to find the box that contained the letters, but found that they were not in English.

X

"…And since my ancestors did not all come from one country, I had no idea which language the letters were in," said Hammer. "I figured that Julius might know, since he's travelled a lot."

"And it just so happens that it's in Romanian," said Julius. "Good thing. It's the only language I can actually read century old stuff in."

"I could have helped," Leon pouted.

"Are you done?" asked Yoko. "Because I feel like by the time you finish, you'll forget where you started. And this is relevant to what Hammer just said."

"Go ahead, then," said Julius.

"The contract is basically a way to force someone to own and take care of all of the statues. Ownership is only transferred upon death, but the owner can decide the next owner by writing their name on the back of this page. You are only allowed to own one statue or all of them (unless they break). If no name is given, the statues automatically go to next of kin. There's an entire page dedicated to the math for determining next of kin somewhere in Julius's pile."

Hammer looked at the document. "Yup, that's my real name. No one calls me that. But how did my great grandparents sell them if the contract stopped them? How binding is this piece of paper?"

"It should prevent the sale by making the owner very afraid of selling," said Yoko. "Unless… can I see the document again? What are the names of your great grandparents?" Yoko asked Hammer several questions about his family and dates of birth before saying, "If my math is right, your great grandparents did not own the statues when they sold them. Your grandmother did. She inherited them from whoever owned them before her, but she was under 18 when that happened, so her parents thought that they legally owned them in her stead. Except for this clause that states that this bypasses any other ownership laws."

"That sounds more like something a contrary lawmaker would use to taunt a lawyer than an actual clause," said Mina. "Or like when two kids are playing pretend and are trying to one up each other with 'everything killing machines' and 'tornadoes that kill everything killing machines'."

Yoko shrugged. "It's magic. Binding contracts do generally look like legal documents, even though I don't think there were lawyers back then."

"So now Hammer has those monster statues and can't get rid of them until he dies," said Mina.

Hammer nodded. "And that's why I came to you."

"You're looking for a way to keep the monsters under control?" asked Mina.

Hammer nodded. "Or at least an explanation."

Leon tapped Soma on the shoulder. "I know what's going on," he said.

"Guys, Leon says that he knows what's going on," said Soma. He turned to Leon. "Do you need my body, or can you just explain it?"

"I'll need your body," said Leon. "Sorry I've been doing this a lot."

"Leon is taking over my body," said Soma. "Maybe we can have some shorthand for when he's in control. Like putting on glasses or something." Then he used the Ghost soul to leave his body, and Leon entered.

"Yeah, you'll be like Clark Kent and Superman," said Hammer. "Except instead of everyone wondering who Superman is, it's obvious that you're the same person when you really aren't. Am I the only one who finds it funny?"

"I do," said Kazuya.

"Julius, Yoko, you remember your ancestor Trevor, right?" said Leon.

"Of course I do," said Julius.

"Trevor Belmont killed Dracula in the fifteenth century, and was the first ever to do so," said Yoko for those who were not privy to vampire hunting secrets. "He did so with the aid of the pirate Grant DeNasty, the sorceress Sypha Belnades, and Dracula's son Alucard. Trevor and Sypha married afterwards, and both the Belmont and Belnades clan are descended from them. Some of their children took the Belnades name, and others took the Belmont name, which is why there are still two clans despite them marrying into each others'."

"And how is this relevant?" asked Mina.

"Because the second person to kill Dracula was Hector the Devil Forgemaster," said Soma. "The one who made half the weapons in Castlevania and that box."

"Exactly what Soma said," said Leon.

There was a pause.

"You do know that none of us can see Soma right now?" said Kazuya.

"Oh, sorry. Soma said that the second person to kill Mathias was Hector the Devil Forgemaster. Hector had the power to make demons. He also made the indestructible box that holds the family records as a wedding gift to Trevor. Other notable achievements include winning the 'best carved chair' competition at the annual fair ten times in a row, forging half the weapons in Castlevania, and managing to not get killed by Trevor when they first met."

There was another pause. "Back up a bit?"

Leon explained what he knew about Hector and how he betrayed Dracula. He said that he knew Hector's past because Hector, Trevor, Sypha, Grant, and Julia had a long talk after Hector's escapade.

"…After he settled down with Julia, Hector decided that unlike her magic and Trevor, Sypha, and Grant's fighting abilities, his forging skills were too dangerous to pass on. His justification was that forging demons was dangerous for everyone involved, training someone would inevitably involve the making of more and that it increased the number of monsters in the world, it was harder to keep it secret in those times of burnings than Julia or Sypha's magic, and that it would be disastrous if his Innocent Devils fell into the wrong hands. The main difference between Hector's skills and everyone else's was that his powers had a riper potential for damage on a larger scale. Hector was in a position where he could send lots of monsters everywhere to ravage the countryside like Mathias did; even if he died, the monsters could still follow his last orders and the hunters would have to run around everywhere to kill them too."

Kazuya felt Julius glare at him. "Yes, I know what you're thinking. I didn't have a choice."

"Hector said that he would not take an apprentice in Devil Forging because it would be his fault if his student's student's student decided to rule the world with demons," continued Leon. "He said that if Trevor, Sypha, Grant, or Julia's students walked the path of evil, they couldn't do nearly as much damage as a horde of rampaging devils. Well, Richter almost did, but that doesn't count because A) it wasn't his power, it was Mathias's, and B) he was brainwashed at the time."

"Leon, tell the group that when I fought Julius, he broke part of the castle with Grand Cross without even being close to it," said Soma. Leon relayed that.

Julius shrugged defensively. "It was also a castle made out of evil magic. Kazuya could do more damage than I could."

"If you must know, I summon my demons from an alternate dimension, so if I die and they're released from my contract, they won't just wreak havoc right away," retorted Kazuya. "If anything, having contracts with them postpones them from invading the world. But yes, I could probably destroy the world with my demons. If I wanted to. If I wanted to, I would have done it by now and not spent the past five years-"

"May I finish?" Leon asked politely but firmly.

There was a pause, and Kazuya realized that he said too much. Everyone was staring at him. Julius's expression was that of a cop catching a delinquent hotwiring a car. "I'm sorry," said Kazuya. "Go ahead."

"Hector became an ordinary blacksmith, but he did also train his apprentices in the art of making magical weapons," said Leon. "He said that making weapons was safe. However, he couldn't just abandon his Innocent Devils. Letting them roam free would invite disaster, and he could not bear to destroy them. So he sealed them inside his basement, along with a box that contained an explanation for everything. He let slip that he would also put in his notes, because he felt as if it would also be safer for someone to know how to control his Innocent Devils than not to. It's a bit contradictory, but I suppose he thought the information should not be lost."

"Weapons debates," said Kazuya glumly. "With Hector's knowledge, you can threaten the world. Without it, the demons would be able to attack without resistance. Better to have it exist than not."

"And now I have the Innocent Devils," said Hammer.

There was a pause. "Don't tell me you're going to try to use them," said Julius.

"And why not?" argued Hammer. "You're always talking about how I can't come with you if Soma goes to the Dark Side. If I can use these demons, I can help."

"I think you should," said Kazuya suddenly, and uncharacteristically ferociously. "If you are backed up against the wall—which I always assume will happen—you _will_ use every weapon at your disposal. And it's safer to practice now than to do it when you're desperate. You'll run into the same problems, but at least when they inevitably come along it won't be when a Nue is trying to eat your face."

"You're saying that I'll screw up?" said Hammer, wary despite the show of support.

"You think I got this good at demon summoning without making lots of mistakes?" retorted Kazuya. "There's a reason why prototyping takes up so much time. I'm not saying anything about you; it's just how life works. At least you have other people to help you. All I had was a program, an instruction manual, and a guy who never stuck around long enough to explain everything. I had to wing the rest."

Julius gave Kazuya a skeptical look, one that took note of Kazuya's age. "Care to elaborate?"

"No," said Kazuya bluntly.

Soma sighed. "Kazuya, stop baiting Julius. I know you hate telling other people about yourself, especially when your hand was forced like this, and that Julius doesn't like you for no reason than that you're a demon summoner, but being a condescending jerk by dropping hints is just being-"

"Soma? He can't hear you," said Leon levelly.

"Oh."

Leon told Kazuya what Soma said.

Kazuya sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry, Julius. I am being a jerk. I'll stop yanking your chain."

"Does that mean that you're going to actually explain what you're talking about?" asked Mina.

"No, I don't know you well enough to tell you," said Kazuya. "I've spent months living with Soma, so I told him."

"But you told me, too," said Leon.

"It only felt fair for you to know all about me if I knew all about you," said Kazuya. "Anyways, Hammer, I assume that you wanted my expertise in demon summoning?"

Hammer nodded. "That was the idea. Can you help?"

"Of course," said Kazuya. "I mean, my knowledge might not help with these kinds of demons. But I'll try."

Julius looked at Kazuya, and then at Hammer. "Go ahead," said Julius. "I'll translate the notes. But if anything goes wrong, I'm using my whip."

"Got it," said Hammer.

"Fair enough," said Kazuya. There was a pause. "But you do realize that even though I never seem to do any work, I'm still a college student. I can't be with you all the time."

"Oh," said Hammer.

"On that note, I have a job too," said Yoko. "I've been in Lithuania for the past three weeks, and I'm going to Canada on Thursday."

"No wonder I haven't seen you around for a while," said Mina.

The group chatted a bit before dispersing.

"Do you really not mind if Hammer uses the Innocent Devils?" Soma asked Kazuya on their way back to the train station.

"He's going to try anyways," said Kazuya. "Like I said, it's better for everyone if he's open about it than if he's doing it in secret. And if Julius refused, chances are he would try to use an internet translator, which would screw everything up and probably get him killed."

"But would you mind if someone used your Demon Summoning Program?" asked Soma.

Kazuya stopped walking. "I would try to stop them," he said. "I know it's hypocritical, allowing one demon magic to pass and restricting another. But… the program is dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. I trust myself with it, but I've seen power corrupt. At least Hector was wise enough to restrict the use of his demons to one person at a time. But allowing an evil overlord to rule is bad; having everyone with their own demons is just as bad…"

Kazuya sighed. "I'm not in the mood for arms debate. Fine. I admit my hypocrisy. Happy?"

"I trust Hammer," said Soma. "He wouldn't try to rule the world with his newfound power."

Kazuya gave Soma an envious look, as if to say that he wished he had Soma's naivety.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Kazuya's explanation of the Demon Summoning Program: Part of it was made up, but part of it comes from Digital Devil Story, the book Megami Tensei was based off of. The explanation that the program simulates a ritual is from that book. The idea on how the rest of the program works is mine.

I think that the computer does not actually store demons inside. I think that it just stores the 'phone number'. Otherwise it's possible to kill a god or seraph by accidentally hitting the delete button on your laptop.


	12. Chapter 12: OMAKE

THIS IS AN OMAKE. It did not really happen in this fic's universe.

To Heika: It's speculated on TV Tropes that Maria and Alucard founded the Lecarde clan. In the WMG and Headscratchers sections. From what I've read, it says that the name 'Alucard' somehow became corrupted into 'Lecarde'. Maria is apparently a distant relative of the Belmonts, so any of her descendants is a branch family member. It's neither official nor canon, so I put that in the notes instead of the story proper.

I meant that Kazuya is over three times older than Soma. Soma does not consider Dracula's life to be his and so does not add Dracula's years to his. And even if he did, Dracula is around 1000 by this story (counting Soma's 20 years of life and not counting the years between 1999 and Soma's birth), and Kazuya is not yet one tenth of that. Besides, Kazuya would kick the habit of automatic politeness from talking to demons much older than him. On another note, SMT2 takes place over 50 years after SMT1. At the start of the game, there is an announcement that someone who worked at the Factory for 50 years donated his life savings, and at the end of SMT Tokyo Millennium hasn't been built yet (unless that's propaganda). Kazuya doesn't have to be alive for all that time. There are only a few Coliseum warriors, but it might be a recent tradition.

Kazuya's wife (let's call her Aoi) does remember the other timeline. She will appear soon, and when she does, I will justify her absence.

The Law Hero and Chaos Hero do not remember the other timeline. The Law Hero is studying to be a lawyer and the Chaos Hero is training to be a professional boxer. Kazuya knows that Law Hero forgot because they had a very one sided conversation when Law Hero was hanging around his girlfriend's house, who also happens to be Kazuya's next door neighbor.

To the guest: You're right, Arvis and Deirdre are named after the couple from Fire Emblem 4. Julius's uncle Azel and cousin Arthur are also named after the Fire Emblem characters (Tinny and Tailto exist as well). Arthur is named after Tailto's son, not Elise's retainer. Julius does not have a twin sister named Julia because Julia is already the name of a Castlevania character. Hector's grandson Roy was named after the hero of FE6.

I had a dream where I was Juste Belmont, but I didn't have the Vampire Killer and my sole power was to make a lot of water spew out of my index finger at the same pressure as a water fountain. I used my power to play a weird game of truth or dare that involved burying a kid with goggles into wet sand. I tried spraying water with both fingers and it worked. I tried it with all of my fingers and it didn't.

To everyone: Thank you for reading! Please don't hate me for this chapter. It does kind of ruin one of the characters. I have mixed feelings about this one. I like how it turned out in general, but it completely defiles one of the characters. I really hesitated in posting this, but I do like some of it. He'll be better in the next chapter, I promise.

This omake was requested by LuciferXIII Trollkaiger Green. I still take requests. Even if I haven't gotten to the two that I actually received. I'll get to them.

OMAKE

"It's all my fault," Julius muttered, watching Pascal gnaw on his chew toy with empty eyes. "I should have kept a closer watch on him."

"No, it's my fault," said Kazuya, absently cleaning his many guns. "I talked you into it. I was there with him the whole time, and what did I do? I sat there and played video games. I could have stopped him."

"Doesn't matter," said Naoki bitterly. "Just focus. Survive. Train. Pick off the weaker monsters he sends. Then take him down."

"Are you nuts!?" shouted Daisuke. "Every second we wait, he gets stronger! We have to strike n-"

Naoki grabbed Daisuke's arm and jerked him down. "Listen, Higawa. I bailed you and your teammates out of there. It wasn't easy. Don't make me regret saving you by throwing away your lives."

"You're lucky that your scientists thought to make your robots self repairing," said Mina, healing the shrapnel in Hikaru's leg. "Otherwise, you'd just be stuck on grunt work duty instead of saving the town. I can't just wave my hand and magically repair your robots. I can only do that with you."

"We're still stuck on grunt work, remember?" grumbled Rei Aoiyama, the pilot of the Azure Spectrum Lancer Custom mecha. "The enemy doesn't know our identities, so we can move around freely. At least, he only knows Daisuke because he jumped the gun and called his mecha right in front of him."

"Shush, Rei," said Haruka Kuroba, pilot of the Sable Starlight Raider Custom. "Just be grateful that we can go out at all."

"I still can't believe that you're a mecha pilot," grumbled Hikaru, testing his weight on the leg and finding it satisfactory. "All this time, I thought you were going to cram school."

Haruka looked up from her book. "All this time, I thought you were a salaryman or something. Nope, you've been stalking college students. I wish that were my job."

"You forget the ton of paperwork," said Hikaru. "And they wouldn't let you stalk hot guys. We're an all male team."

There was a pause. Midori put down her Final Fantasy game. "Kashima is right," said Midori Kamiya, pilot of the Verdant Luster Wizard Custom. "If we couldn't even beat the random encounters, how can we expect to beat the boss? We need to do some grinding."

"And what, fight more random encounters?" said Rei, standing up. "They decimated us last time! There's no way-"

Victoria 'Vicky/Becky' Wednesday, pilot of the Magenta Giga Meteor Custom and token non Japanese person, grabbed Rei by the shoulder. "Don't say we can't do it. We've fought Cyber Hell for years. We can take down some self proclaimed Dark Lord."

Her best friend's confidence soothed Rei. She sat down.

"Show of confidence aside, you really should leave this to us," said Kazuya.

Julius whistled. "Hit the wrong button there, kid."

Daisuke and Rei both tried to grab Kazuya by the shirt collar, but failed in their attempt at drama when they crashed into each other. Then they compromised by moving back and just yelling at him.

"We can't just-"

"Don't treat us like-"

"I can't help you get stronger," said Kazuya, head lowered. "You use robots as your weapons. I can give you a better sword or a better gun, or train you better in slashing or shooting. I can't upgrade your robots, and I can't make you better at using those robots."

"And if you lost against those monsters back there, there's not much you can do to help," said Naoki. "At most, you can take them by surprise or gang up on them. But since you're piloting giant robots, you'd only be able to sneak up on really stupid monsters."

Daisuke and Rei sat down again, still glaring. Then Mina said, "Can't you train them how to fight hand to hard from scratch? I mean, we're going to be here for a while anyways."

Kazuya blinked. "That is… the most obvious solution that I never would have thought of."

"But we can't waste time!" protested Daisuke. "We need to kill-"

"If you don't agree to be trained, then we'll stop bailing you out," said Naoki.

Midori gaped at Naoki. "You're a heartless demon."

"I don't recall losing my heart when I became a demon," said Naoki. "Then again, I've been stabbed where it should be a couple of times. Still kicking."

"It will take a long time for you to get strong enough to face the most powerful monsters he controls, yes," said Kazuya. "But leave those to us. Being able to take down medium level demons if you work together is good enough."

Julius broke out of his stupor. "If you choose to fight monsters, you should know that you're risking your life," he said. "We can't keep you safe and kill monsters at the same time. My way of protecting others is running from enemies and killing the boss, not guarding civilians or exterminating monsters."

All five members just stared at him. "You do realize that we've been fighting cyborgs for three years?" said Midori. "I was in middle school when I started. We've been risking our lives ever since."

"Yes, but you're not in your robots anymore," said Julius. "If you get hit once, you're very likely to die."

"So lesson number one should be on how to dodge or how to make your enemy miss," said Naoki. "Although, come to think of it, how the hell did we not notice giant robot battles for three years?"

"It's actually been going on for decades," corrected Midori. "We're just the latest batch of pilots."

"FALCON covers it up," said Rei. "Just take our word for it."

"We need a plan," said Mina. "We don't know where the enemy is hiding."

"He's actually thinking," said Julius. "Random attacks, obvious base of operations abandoned, bombing our base as his first act, cutting off communications, and no large symbol of power erected. Not what you would expect of an evil overlord."

"More like the act of a military group," said Kazuya. "And still not the worst experience I had with someone from the American military."

"You have a weird life," said Midori.

"You're not one to talk," retorted Kazuya casually.

Next to Kazuya, a small but bright light turned on. "Someone's coming," he said, picking up his trusty M134 Minigun and edging towards the door. Everyone else moved so that they could not be seen from the door.

The window to the Agency's bunker slid open, revealing Soma, Yoko, and Arikado.

"Halt," said Kazuya, pointing his gun though the slot. "Soma, how do you spell Dracula's real name? Yoko, who were the youngest people to fight against Dracula, and how old were they? Arikado… I don't know you. Back me up, Julius?"

Behind him, Julius asked Arikado, "Arikado, what was Trevor's favorite color?"

Soma spelled Mathias Cronqvist's name correctly, and Yoko stated that both Maria Renard and Carrie Fernandez were twelve. Arikado said that Trevor liked greenish brown.

"Kazuya, how old are you really?" asked Soma.

Kazuya opened his mouth to answer, but then said, "You don't know that. You're just trying to get the answer out of me, aren't you?"

"Fine," said Soma. "Kazuya, what were the first words you said to me when we met?"

"Hello, I'm Kazuya, don't touch my computer and we'll get along just fine," said Kazuya, lowering his gun. Yoko lowered her arms, and Soma and Arikado made their swords vanish. In a lower voice, he added while opening the metal door, "I'm sixty-seven, by the way."

"What was that?"

"Good hunting?" asked Naoki.

Yoko shrugged. "Killed plenty of them. But they just keep coming."

"They don't look like much at first, but they're not dumb and they use every dirty trick they can," said Naoki. "You should have seen all the times I thought I could thrash a horde of demons weaker than me, but we almost all died because they caught me off guard or blinded me or I just did something stupid."

"Any luck with finding the base?" asked Julius.

Soma shook his head. "None of the Innocent Devils let me Dominate them. They're all loyal to Hammer. We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

The spies nodded shakily. "It's not like they know what we look like, so it should be fine, right?" said Hikaru.

"Not to mention that we've gotten better at this," said Saitou.

"I'll send out my demons," said Kazuya.

"Soma, you can summon the monsters under your control, right?" said Mina.

Soma nodded. "I'll try the ones that look like animals. Student Witch, Witch, all the Bat ones."

"We have food," said Arikado, holding up a couple of pizzas and a bag of groceries.

"Pizza? Awesome!" said Kazuya. When everyone stared at him, he said, "Hey, the 'pizza loving hacker' stereotype is true. Even if stereotypical hackers don't hack by summoning demons to threaten people into giving them their passwords."

The remnants of the Agency, a witch, the FALCON pilots, and the most powerful demon summoner, vampire hunter, vampire lord, half vampire, and demon, and vampire lord's girlfriend all sat inside the Agency's basement and ate their fast food.

"Who would have thought that Hammer of all people would become drunk on the power the Innocent Devils gave him and declare himself the Dark Lord?" said Soma, drinking apple soda.

"He's the Dread Lord, remember?" said Mina. "I told him that he couldn't be the Dark Lord; we already established the requirements, and he didn't fit them."

"Whatever," said Soma.

"It doesn't matter," growled Rei. "We need to get stronger! We need to train!"

"All right, let's start tomorrow," said Kazuya.

X

Seventeen hours ago, the rest of the Agency was still standing. Hammer had called a meeting at his shop.

However, what they found there was a den of Innocent Devils and a cell phone.

"So you're finally here, eh?" said Hammer's voice from the phone. "Good. I would like to announce that I am going to take over the world."

There was a really long, awkward pause. "What?" said Julius.

"I am taking over the world with the Innocent Devils," said Hammer. "I have an entire legion of demons at my command. What did you think I was going to do?"

"I don't know, go to college and try to live a productive life like the rest of us?" said Kazuya.

Mina turned to him. "Why are you here, anyways?"

"I thought I was a part of the group," said Kazuya. "I brought snacks."

Hammer coughed. "So now I am the Dark L-"

"No you're not," said Mina. "We've already established that the Dark Lord needs to have Dracula's power, or at least power like it or greater. Having power over demons doesn't make you the Dark Lord."

"Is it copyrighted?" said Yoko. "Because I don't think you can copyright that name."

"It might as well be," said Julius.

"Fine then," said Hammer. "I declare myself King of Evil!"

"That's jumping the gun a little," said Julius. "I don't think you've done enough evil acts to take that name."

"How about Dread Lord?"

"A bit Discworld-y, but that works," said Soma.

Hammer coughed over the phone. "In that case… I declare myself the Dread Lord Malleus! Now, die!"

The Innocent Devils struck. Hammer's former friends (and Kazuya) managed to defeat them all, but Hammer had gotten away.

When Julius had called the Agency for backup, the line was dead. He then called Arikado, who informed them that the local headquarters were bombed. He had survived, but not everyone was as fortunate.

Across the city, they had found that the police stations were bombed as well. Banks were robbed, not only by demons but by opportunistic criminals.

Arikado had called them to the Agency's bunker to discuss what was to be done about Hammer. The consensus was that Hammer was a threat to be dealt with. No one was too happy about it, but Kazuya and Naoki were unusually adamant. Arikado wavered a little, in memory of Richter, but ultimately decided that it would be worse to let him go free.

They spent the night sleeping in the bunker fitfully.

X

Two days later, Saitou came back to base with a crate of ice cream and whiskey and a huge grin on his face. "Guess what? Hammer is dead!"

Kazuya, Yoko, Mina, Soma, and Julius stopped their poker game. "What did you say?" said Julius.

"Hammer is… dead," said Saitou, realizing that he was talking to the deceased's former friends. "I killed him today."

"What?!" said Daisuke and Rei.

"How?" said Mina, tears welling up despite herself.

"Let it out," said Kazuya. "Cry or laugh. He's a horrible person but also your old friend. If you don't know what to do, it just means that you're human. Don't feel bad about your own emotions."

"I caught him while he was eating a bowl of ramen," said Saitou. "I bought a baseball bat and bashed his head in on the way out."

There was an awkward pause. "I know that it's sad that a fellow human being died today, but WOW that was anticlimactic," said Becky.

"Shouldn't we have all gotten sick of Kazuya's training methods and struck out on our own, only to fail, and then learn the value of humility?" said Midori.

"Or I'd think that since I'm super strong that I'd be fine on my own, and since both me and Kazuya hate groups, we'd try to raid the base and somehow fail as well," said Naoki.

"Or all of us would think that we'd be fine against this enemy on our own, but then we all fail and then we learn the value of trust and teamwork," said Mina, still crying.

"If this were a movie, then I'd temporarily become Dracula early on, and I'd angst about it for half the run time before gaining control and freely using his power with my own love," said Soma, curled up in the fetal position. "And then I would come to terms with my power instead of hating it."

"Come on, if this were a movie, then we'd be the red shirts," said Hikaru.

"And I'd be the stupid guy who thinks that he can control demons when he really can't," said Kazuya. "I'd die in the opening sequence."

"And I'd die because I'm the mentor figure," said Julius, looking the happiest he had been in days.

"I guess I'd be the token competent female, but since the writers don't know how to write women, I'd just be pining and moaning all the time," said Yoko. "Or I'd die to motivate someone else."

"Does anyone else think that we should at least have gotten to the sequence where we tell each other about our pasts and our secrets because we won't survive otherwise?" said Naoki.

"Let's be realistic here," said Mina, sniffling. "Hammer is a normal human. One with military training, but human nonetheless. We have the world's strongest vampire hunter, the reincarnation of the vampire king, a powerful witch, a bunch of giant mecha pilots, and whatever you guys are. All Hammer has on his side is lots of guns and monsters. Do you really expect him to survive for long against us?"

There was a pause, interrupted by sobbing.

"So… can we skip to the sequence where we bare our hearts to each other?" said Naoki.

Kazuya looked at the vampire hunters with sympathy. "Be honest with yourselves. Do you really think Hammer was blameless in all this? He stabbed you in the back."

"HEY!" shouted Leon, heard only by Naoki, Soma, and Arikado. "Sorry I haven't said anything in a while. I've been trying to snoop out Hammer's location. Hello, Adrian, I haven't seen you since you and Maria left for the Americas. Did you dye your hair again? Or is black your natural color? You look very handsome, by the way. Yes, I am fussing over you. I know that you are several centuries old, but I'm not that much younger than your father. Relatively speaking. And even though Mathias and I were estranged, and so are you, I was still his best friend. Does that make me your honorary uncle? Or godfather? If, well, Mathias didn't renounce God. I really do wish I could have met you earlier."

Arikado just stared at Leon, for once completely taken aback.

"Leon's talking again," said Soma, choking a bit. "He's the ghost of Julius's ancestor. Only Naoki and I… and I guess Arikado can see him. Are you talking about Maria Renard the twelve year old girl?"

"Anyways, you do realize that just because Hammer is dead, it doesn't mean that the city is still safe. You still have to deal with the demons he created. Hector must be turning in his grave."

"Let's celebrate first," said Soma. "What kind of ice cream did you bring?"

Saitou distributed the ice cream. He paused when he passed a bowl to Arikado. "Also… um, sir?"

"Yes?" said Arikado.

"I kind of committed murder in broad daylight. Could you help me not go to jail?"

TO BE CONTINUED!

Yes, I know that Hammer becoming evil is very OOC. I'm sorry. I don't have to guts to make him really evil, but my solution of killing him is pretty harsh. He'll be better in the next chapter. I promise.

The idea for self repairing robots came from Bob and George. Either Roll or Proto Man said that Doctor Light was fed up with fixing his robots every time they got into a fight, so he made them so that they could repair themselves.

The five pilots have their names related to color. The Hi in Daisuke Higawa means crimson, the Aoi in Rei Aoiyama is blue, the Kuro in Haruka Kuroba means black, and Midori means green. Kamiya was the first Japanese surname I could think of, and came from Tai and Kari Kamiya of Digimon. Guess where I got Victoria Wednesday's name from. Hint: her color is pink.


	13. Chapter 13: Rahab

Yeah, I still feel bad about last chapter. I wanted to put this one out as fast as possible. Please continue reading, and don't hate me for last chapter.

Rahab

The power to swim freely in water was one of those rare souls that was just as good as it sounded. It had practically no downsides. Soma couldn't drown as long as he had the soul, and he could move in water as fast as walking. Viscosity? What viscosity? The others had firmly barred him from any swimming competition, partially because it was cheating but mostly because it would be suspicious, but Soma told them that he was very bad at the basic strokes. He'd be more likely to be disqualified for having feet above water in breaststroke than for using dark magic. The other souls that pretty much had no downsides were the Ouija Table soul and the Ghoul soul, which really only had the caveat that he had to hide it from normal people.

The problem was that Soma didn't live close to water and wasn't a swimmer. It was the opposite of the Waiter Skeleton and Mimic souls in that those were the ones that they provided things that Soma needed with annoying catches, while the Rahab annoyingly helped him with no catches in something that he didn't need.

Deprived of more aquatic pursuits, Soma primarily used his power for baths and bets. According to him, hot water baths were most refreshing when your entire body was in the water and you didn't have to worry about breathing. It worked out fine, until the well-meaning people round him kept on dragging him up out of fear for his safety.

Gambling was more profitable. Soma checked the record for longest breath held underwater (about 22 minutes) and kept on gambling at parties over whether he could hold his breath for two minutes repeatedly.

He made about 5000 yen before one of Daisuke's roommates butted in. "Two minutes?" said the guy known as Michelle. "Easy. I can do it for five!"

Michelle then proceeded to stick his head in the sink.

"… Shouldn't we be doing something?" said Kazuya three and a half minutes later. Michelle still hadn't come up.

"Meh, he'll be fine," said Tatsuya, one of the second years.

"Is anyone timing this?" said Jun, Tatsuya's roommate.

"I am," said Kazuya. "If he dies, does anyone know where we can dump the body?"

"We can bury him in the mountains," Soma said, making Daisuke flinch a bit.

The party murmured some other suggestions. "Feed him to pigs?"

"Pretend to raid a graveyard and instead actually bury him?"

"Don't kill me off just like that," Michelle burbled under the water.

"Save your breath," said Tatsuya.

"One minute to go," said Kazuya. "Don't die, Tidus."

After the timer beeped, Michelle burst out of the sink to the sound of clapping.

"All right, time for more cake!" said Naoki, handing Michelle a bowl of chocolate cake and ice cream. "Also rum. Anyone want rum?"

"We're underage!" protested Daisuke.

"I'm not," said Tatsuya, taking the bottle.

"Lucky punk," muttered Daisuke.

Michelle pointed at Soma. "Beat that, Cruz!"

"You're on," said Soma before his brain could catch up with his mouth.

"All right, we're going to time you," said Tatsuya, taking Kazuya's stopwatch. "Winner gets bragging rights."

"And 10000 yen?" said Michelle hopefully.

"Sure, why not."

Jun filled up two bowls full of water. "Keep tapping the floor with your fingers to show that you're alive," he said. "If you stop, we're going to pull you out. None of us want to deal with a dead body tonight. If it were up to me, I'd shove you two in a fire pit the second you stopped breathing."

There was a pause.

"I mean, I'd shove you in a fire pit when you died, not when you start the contest," Jun reassured the people who were going to temporarily stop breathing.

Both Soma and Michelle stuck their heads in the bowls, neither knowing that the other was cheating. Michelle had no way of knowing that Soma was using evil soul devouring magic. But Soma had no idea that Michelle was using the power of Hades within his very soul to stop himself from being hurt by water in any way. The match was even.

In the end, Jun 'accidentally' knocked over Michelle's bowl, preventing both of them from making a new world record and attracting attention to his supernatural powers. The bet was called off and they both enjoyed pizza and ramen.

X

"You really need to stop cheating like this," said Kazuya the next day as he made sausages and waffles. Naoki was nursing his hangover, wondering how exactly he could still get hangovers with the body of an immortal demon.

"Says the gambling addict," said Soma. "You cleared out Julius's wallet the last time you two played poker."

"Hey, he can afford it, and at least I don't cheat," said Kazuya. He put on his coat. "I'm going to go help Hammer with his Innocent Devils. He's been giving me gun lessons."

"But you're already a crack shot," said Naoki, moaning a bit. "I've seen you snipe a pigeon with a machine gun on street level. It was on top of a building. 800 meters away!"

"I probably should ask you guys what you get up to on the weekends," said Soma.

"Just because I know how to shoot doesn't mean that I know how to really take care of a gun," said Kazuya. "I never learned how to clean or disassemble a gun. Heck, I never even took a safety class. All I got was, 'This is the safety, this is the trigger, here's how you load it, and don't point it at yourself'."

"Why didn't you?" asked Soma, and then it hit him. "Right. Guns are illegal. Why did you kill that pigeon?"

"I was bored and drunk," said Kazuya. When Soma gave him a skeptical look, Kazuya retorted, "I'm older than you, all right? I went over the legal age decades ago."

"I'd say that the first rule of gun safety would to be not to use one while drunk, no matter how old you are," said Soma.

Kazuya ignored him and walked out the door.

"Guess it's just you and me, then," said Naoki.

"Actually, I was going to do some experimenting with Mina," said Soma. When Naoki broke into a lopsided grin, Soma said with a red face, "Magic experiments!"

"Is that what kids are calling it these days?" said Kazuya, poking his head back through the door. "Be home for dinner."

"You don't even make us dinner."

"Can't I worry about how you two eat? I'll stop when you stop sarcastically calling me 'Mom'."

X

"I swear, he can get so immature, it's hard to believe that he's older than both of us put together," Soma told Mina when they got together.

Mina sipped her bubble tea. "I don't think there are any normal people at our school. I swear that one of my roommates works for the mafia. Or Yakuza."

"Really?" said Soma, not really believing her.

"Soma, you're the reincarnation of Count Dracula, and your roommates the demon and demon summoner had a prank war with a mecha pilot and his two roommates," said Mina. "And I doubt that they're normal, either. I caught one of them talking to a test tube, and I found a machine gun in the other's guitar case. A college Yakuza associate is hardly the strangest thing in your life."

"Point taken," said Soma. "So why do you think this roommate of yours works for the mob?"

"I found a gun in her dresser, and I keep seeing her talking to weird people in black," said Mina. "And my other roommate is a superheroine."

"Did you find her costume?" said Soma. "Does she wear a cape?"

"She comes in and out at weird hours, has lots of injuries and keeps making excuses for them," said Mina. "She also keeps asking us about crime. I heal her on the sly. I hope my roommates never find out about each other." She chewed on the bubbles.

"I'd say that you're the only normal person at school," said Soma.

Mina gave him a look. "Soma. I can heal people from the brink of death just by holding a conversation with them. I learned from an American military person how to do headshots on zombies because both of us were bored sitting around in a courtyard in the middle of a demonic castle inside a solar eclipse. I am learning how to launch fireballs at people from a witch. The charms my family sells at the shrine actually exorcise or seal demons. My family sealed an entire castle inside an astronomical event. How is that normal?"

"Point taken," said Soma.

"Anyways, weird life aside, which soul do you want to try today?"

"The Rahab soul," said Soma. "The one that lets me explore water without drowning."

"I thought that was the Skula soul," said Mina.

"No, that one just lets me sink to the bottom without drowning," said Soma, drinking his milkshake. "It sounds like it does the same thing, but the change in wording makes a huge difference. The Rahab soul lets me move around freely in water. Best part is, it's an Ability Soul. It's already always equipped and I don't have to keep switching it out. Before I got either of those souls, I was forced to keep treading water back and forth."

Mina gave Soma the blank look of someone who was focusing too hard to see anything in front of them. "That brings up a lot of questions," said Mina. "First, if there's room to tread water, why can't you just swim?"

"Have you ever tried swimming in a coat like this?" said Soma, indicating the fluffy jacket he was wearing. "The drag is insane."

"Then take it off," said Mina. "Go kill monsters soaking wet and shirtless. Fulfill some fangirl's dreams. And take some pictures while you're at it."

"If you want to see shirtless guys, Naoki's always up for it," said Soma. He cleared his throat. "Okay, it's really because I'm afraid that monsters will kill me if I stick my head under water. First off, I don't have goggles and I don't trust the water to be clean, so I can't see anything. I'm terrified of monsters popping up out of nowhere. Second, I can't breathe, and if I stay too long I'll drown. If they attack down there, they'd just drag me down and wait. Even if I fought back, I'd have to kill them really fast and without overexerting myself, or I'll drown. It wasn't until I got the Skula and Rahab souls that I was able to really swim without being terrified."

"But doesn't it take seven minutes for someone to drown?" said Mina.

Soma shrugged. "I didn't know that. Could you just leave me to my terror?"

Mina nodded. "The other thing I've been wondering is how you know what the souls do. I've seen you just kill a monster and then just make its lance appear from nowhere. I thought it was instinct, but you said something about a description."

Soma took another sip of melted milkshake. "It's… hard to describe. When I look at a monster soul—look isn't the right word, since it's inside me and I'm not using my eyes—I remember what it does."

"Dracula's memories?" said Mina.

"Yup," said Soma. "They're not like how you remember how a bicycle or a shovel works. When you think of those, you picture a chain spinning or someone using the shovel? These memories come out in words. It's more like how you remember a formula, or something you've been told a lot."

"Like the Pokémon theme song?" said Mina.

"Like that, except I don't really hear a voice," said Soma. "More like when you memorize a line from a book, and it comes out in your own voice."

Mina drank more bubble tea. "So what does the Rahab soul say?"

"Er… Move and breath freely while underwater," said Soma. "And yes, it did say 'breath' and not 'breathe'."

"Given that Dracula didn't speak Japanese when he was alive, I can understand a few hiccups in the translation," said Mina.

"Honestly, I'm surprised that there aren't more mistakes," said Soma. "It's really impressive."

"Magical reincarnation soul power; doing a better job than internet translators since 2017," said Mina. "But that does bring up more questions. And experiments."

"What, you want me to look for mistakes in-"

"No, I mean the Rahab soul," said Mina. "I doubt that the water you've been in is so pure that it's only made of water. How polluted does the water have to be before the soul doesn't count it as water anymore? What if you swam in another liquid, like iodine or blood? Oil? No, that's too far from water. Do you have trouble with sand in water?"

"Are you going to stick my head in a barrel of blood?" said Soma, slightly horrified.

"As long as you swear not to drink it," said Mina. "Blood and seawater are closely related, so it would make a good experiment."

"Why can't we do something a bit more… legal?" said Soma. "Like beer. Can we see if I can survive in a bath of beer?"

"Soma, where are we going to get beer?"

"I don't know, where are we going to get blood?" Soma briefly thought about asking his roommates, before deciding that doing anything that resulted in him smelling of alcohol would be a bad idea.

"I know a place where we can buy chickens," said Mina. "We just kill one, drain the blood, and then we can roast it for dinner."

"How much blood can you get in a chicken?" asked Soma.

Mina shrugged. "We'll just have to see about that." She took out her phone. "Can you believe it? I can't find anything about the volume of chicken blood."

"How about a pig? I like pork, and I'm pretty sure we won't run out of blood," said Soma. "We can make blood sausage with the leftovers. Or pudding."

"That's settled, then," said Mina. "We just need to borrow a car."

X

"… And that's why we have a pig," said Soma the next morning.

The pig made pig noises, which were definitely not cute 'oink's.

"And that's why Daisuke is here," said Mina.

Daisuke looked at the vampire hunter's apartment and wondered where the silver bullets were kept.

Julius just stared at them. "How did you get it all the way up to my apartment without anyone noticing?"

"Hid it under my school uniform," said Soma, who had indeed put on his old high school uniform for such an occasion.

"But how-"

"I once hid an entire desk under my uniform," said Soma. "I had no idea how I did it. But no one noticed it."

"I left something for him inside his desk, but the school was about to close," said Mina. "So instead of searching and risking getting caught, he took the whole desk home."

"And then it turned out to be the wrong desk," said Soma. "The egg custard tarts you made for me were moldy when I got them back. Not that I blame you or anything," he added quickly.

"Next time I give someone a present in their own desk, I'll try to make it not perishable," said Mina.

Daisuke thought about the four girls his age that he had a close relationship with, and realized that none of them had ever given him dessert. "Cruz, you lucky punk…"

Julius looked at the pig. It looked at him. "And why did you bring it here?"

"You said that you'd help me with soul experiments if I helped with the diary," said Soma. "Besides, it's a big pig. We can share him."

"Do either of you know how to slaughter a pig?" asked Julius.

The trio shook their heads.

"I do," said Leon in the background.

"But Leon can," said Soma. "Can you?"

"Of course," said Julius. "We raised animals back home. We were supposed to be completely isolated and self sufficient."

"Except you still went to the grocery store whenever there was a crop failure, whenever there was something that you didn't grow, or when you wanted something out of season," said Leon. "Not to mention that you had to go to school. And pay taxes. And most of you had to hold down non monster hunting jobs."

Soma relayed that, giggling a bit.

"Point is, I know how to slaughter a pig," said Julius. "But can we do this outside? I don't want to have to clean it up."

"Where?" said Daisuke. "Can we just get this over with? Now my car smells like pig!"

"Is it an improvement on fish and dead bodies?" asked Soma.

"It pooped in the back!" said Daisuke. "You're going to have to clean it up!"

"We can go to the mountains," said Julius. "But I don't know how to cook a pig over a fire. It was almost always my father or my aunt or uncle who cooked. And when I was a vagabond, I generally stole chickens. I couldn't exactly lug a cow carcass wherever I went."

Something stirred in Soma's memory. "I think my roommates know how."

X

"You do know that even though I did say that I roasted and devoured the corpses of the demons I slayed (which makes me a cannibal), I just did it with no seasoning and no culinary experience," said Naoki over the phone. "Everything tastes good when you're starving. Eventually, I stopped caring about cooking cadavers and started eating them raw."

"That's disgusting," said Soma, conveniently forgetting that he drank rotten blood from zombies and ghouls.

"I didn't even butcher them; I just found a fleshy bit and took a huuuge bite," said Naoki, laughing at the vampire's squeamishness. "Can I still come? Fresh pork sounds great. I'll bring popsicles and watermelon."

"Why watermelon?" said Soma.

"I told you I couldn't cook," said Naoki.

"Yes, but it's the middle of winter," said Soma.

"Fine, I'll bring hot chocolate and bread," said Naoki. "What time are we doing this?"

Soma gave him the time and place, and then said goodbye. He hung up. "Looks like Naoki doesn't know," he said. He then called Kazuya.

"Yeah, I can do roast pork," said Kazuya over the phone. "You know that in the future, they'll clone Nandi for meat? You know, the cow god? Or bull god. What do they call the species? Cattle? Cattle god doesn't sound nearly as good."

"Oh, really?" said Soma. "You'd think the Hindus would protest."

"No Hindus. The pseudo-Christians killed them for worshipping other gods. At least, they tried. Valhalla still had some last time I was there." [1]

"You just changed from future tense to past," said Soma. "I can never tell when you're making stuff up on the fly."

"Also, Hammer averted the nuclear apocalypse," said Kazuya.

"What?"

"I'll bring the seasoning, vegetables, and herbs. Bye!"

"What? Kazuya? …Kazuya? KAZUYAAA! He hung up," said Soma.

"If your roommates are coming, too, we might as well have a potluck," said Mina. "Maybe I should invite my roommates."

"But we'd have to explain why we're draining the blood of an entire pig," said Soma. "We'd have to swear that we're not in a cult."

"In that case, let's just call Yoko and Hammer. No, wait, Yoko's in Canada."

Soma called Hammer. "I'm American," said Hammer. "I love barbeque. Want some apple pie and hot dogs while you're at it?"

"I think what we really need is something other than meat," said Soma. "Pie would be great."

"Will Yoko be there?"

"Sorry, she's still in Canada," said Soma. He paused. "You already had the chance to talk to her at all those meetings. And you had a shop right next to hers."

"So what? Confessing your feelings isn't easy, you know. You should know."

Soma heard Kazuya's giggling on the other line, and turned red.

X

"This is really cool," said Naoki, dumping all the wood he could find into a smoldering pile. "It's like a survivor TV show."

"Naoki, you said you survived a trek across an endless spherical desert populated almost entirely with demons," said Kazuya, helping Julius carefully cut open the washed pig's throat so that it died instantly and with minimal blood wasted. "Those guys have nothing on you."

"And you're never going to tell us why that happened," said Julius, shifting and squeezing the pig. "Do you want to cook the innards as well, or just the meat?"

"Everything," said Kazuya, holding the butt up in the air. "We're not wasting a single bone of this pig."

Julius smiled, for once admiring something about the demon summoner. "Good answer. But I'm sure you don't want the feces."

"Except for that," said Kazuya.

"We could use that for tanning," said Leon in Soma's body, also helping Julius lift the pig. "Then again, you don't want for clothing and none of us can really sew."

"I still have no idea who you are," Daisuke said to Julius. He had brought chocolate pudding and a large bowl of eggplant, salted fish, carrots, ginger, and rice. "You keep talking about stuff that you never explain."

"What do you think I am?" asked Julius. "Off the top of your head."

Daisuke flipped back to the meetings. "Well… I know you're a vampire hunter, Yoko is your distant cousin, and your ghost ancestor talks a lot. And your family is paranoid and they live in a bunker in case of nuclear fallout. Oh, and they don't have electricity. I feel like that should be enough, but I think I'm missing something."

"I'm from a long line of vampire hunters that started with Leon," said Julius, setting down the pig. "And yes, I had no idea that he was this…" Julius realized that Leon was standing right next to him in his friend's body. "Energetic."

"Could someone get the fire for us?" asked Leon.

"Hey, Naoki, could you get the fire for us?" asked Kazuya.

Mina strode over and launched a fireball, igniting all of the wood.

Leon whistled. "You're going to go far. It really reminds me of how Christina used to…"

"Traditionally, our family has to kill Dracula," said Julius over Leon's chatter. "It started with Leon's great times whatever grandson Trevor in the fifteenth century. He rises every century or so, and we had to kill him until the nineteenth century onwards. Then one of my ancestors screwed up and had to give our primary weapon to another family, which is why Quincy Morris killed Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel (but he really did have our weapon and not just a knife). In 1999 the weapon was returned to us and I was called to kill Dracula for good."

"And then he came back anyways as a student," said Daisuke. "Persistent little bugger. What kind of weapon is it? Sword? Lance? Anachronistic super intestine robot armor?"

"It's this whip," said Julius. In a lower voice, he added, "Don't insult it, or Leon will choke you." He turned to where he thought Soma was standing. "Hey, Soma, you said that you wanted this blood? Is this enough? I don't want to choke this guy any more than I have to. What's it for, anyways? Emergency supply?"

Soma looked at the pool of blood and the overflowing bucket. "That's more than enough," he said. "Thanks. It's for a magic experiment. I want to see if the power to not drown in water extends to blood." Leon relayed that.

"All right, save some of that for the rest of us," said Kazuya.

"You want to use it for demonic rituals?" said Julius.

"No, I want to try my hand at blood pudding."

When Kazuya took the carcass for cooking hours later, Julius asked Soma, "Is he taunting me, or is he being serious?"

Leon looked at Soma. "Time for you to return," he said. Soma thanked him, Leon informed Julius that he was leaving, and they switched.

Soma shrugged. "I've lived with him for months, and I still haven't figured him out. He said that Hammer saved the world from nuclear war, and that's it."

"He said I saved the world?" said Hammer, taking a seat next to Julius.

"Typical Kazuya," said Naoki, taking the seat next to Soma. "Hammer, do you know what might have set this off?"

"Well, the other day, when he was helping me with the IDs-"

"IDs?" said Julius. "You're forging identity cards?"

"Can you get me one in a couple of years?" said Naoki. "If I still look like a high schooler when I'm well into my twenties, people will get suspicious."

Julius realized that he had no idea who or what Naoki was.

"No, of course not," said Hammer. "That would be stupid, illegal, and I don't want to go to jail."

"You sold guns to minors," said Mina. She had brought cups, napkins, plates, cutlery, serving spoons, and everything that they needed to have an actual party.

"I rented them," corrected Hammer. "And by IDs I meant Innocent Devils. I thought it sounded cooler if abbreviated."

"But ID is already an established abbreviation," said Julius. "It's possible, but not really recommended to-"

"Fine, I'll keep calling them Innocent Devils," said Hammer. "Except when I need to text you."

"So why did Kazuya say that you saved the world?" asked Naoki.

Hammer drank the hot chocolate. "So while we were looking at the Innocent Devils, Kazuya said that he had some bad experiences with American military people in Japan. I asked him why, and he just said that he had a fight with someone. I told him that I quit, and he asked why."

"Why did you, anyways?" said Soma. "You said you wanted to open up a shop, but that can't be it?"

"I did want to sell antiques, but that wasn't the only reason," said Hammer. "One day, while I was doing… I can't remember what I was doing that day, but I do remember that we had waffles and sausage for breakfast. For some reason, I was in a meeting room after a top secret meeting, and I saw a file labeled TOP SECRET."

"You got fired, didn't you," said Mina.

"No, and it's a miracle that I wasn't executed," said Hammer. "What I did would bring back the death penalty. Unless they already did bring it back."

"So what did it say?" said Daisuke eagerly. "It was a mecha blueprint, wasn't it? An American mecha? Was it red, white, and blue?"

Hammer shook his head. "It was labeled the 'Japan Extermination Project'. I wasn't thinking at the time, but I stole the files, hid them in my magazines, and destroyed my tracks with plastic explosives. They never found out it was me."

"Efficiency for the win," said Naoki.

Julius, Mina, Soma, and Daisuke just gaped. "The hell!?"

Hammer sighed. "Yeah, C-4 is a bit much-"

"No, the American military had something called the Japan extermination project?!" said Mina. "That's insane!"

"Soma, didn't Kazuya say that in his1999, Thor's quest to destroy the demons was called the Japan Extermination Project?" said Leon.

"Don't ever tell anyone I told you this," said Hammer, completely seriously. "I was incredibly lucky that no one found me out. I thought it was a joke, but when I read it through, I realized that it wasn't. It contained plans to nuke all of Japan in case… something happened. It talked about a Code Red. I was on a crossroads." Hammer choked a bit. "I could ignore the file, and pretend I never read it. I had no idea what a Code Red was, and what if it was better if Japan was gone if a Code Red happened? I could trust my superior's judgment. Or I could betray my country I vowed to serve to save the lives of millions of people, but just on the 'maybe'. I could be betraying my country and sacrificing my superiors for something that might never happen, or worse, something that had a good reason. I thought about it for days, before I finally committed treason. I copied the files and anonymously gave them to someone who worked for Japanese intelligence. The next day, the people involved stepped down. I couldn't just quit then, otherwise they'd be suspicious. But I couldn't think that my work was doing the world good. It was pretty halfhearted from then on. So after the shrine incident, I found an excuse to quit."

There was a long silence. "You did the right thing," said Leon encouragingly. Soma relayed that, and Hammer's knees went weak with relief.

"And you told Kazuya this?" said Mina, aghast.

Hammer nodded. "It just felt… right. I felt like I knew him; like I trusted him with another secret long ago. And then after I told him that, he had to sit down. He then told me that he couldn't just listen to that and not tell me anything. So he told me everything about himself."

"Like what?" asked Naoki testily. "Are you talking about his innermost feelings, or his past? Why he summons demons?"

Hammer nodded. "He told me about his past, and not to repeat what he told me."

"Damn right I did," said Kazuya, appearing right next to Hammer, squeezing the pig's uncooked heart.

"AAAAHH!" screamed Daisuke and Hammer in unison.

"Going to have to wait a bit for some of the meat to just stew a bit," said Kazuya. "Could someone with clean hands give me the plastic containers and the ice chest? We're having pig bone soup tomorrow."

"Does anyone have any idea how we're going to wash off?" said Mina levelly.

There was a pause. Kazuya cursed. Julius lifted his bottle of Holy Water.

"Good thing I didn't try the experiment yet," said Soma. "Let's do it… no, wait, we'd have to wash it off in the bathroom, and then it'll get really awkward."

"Just do it in a stream or something," said Mina. "It'll be freezing, sure, but we have a bonfire. I saw a lake back there."

Soma grumbled as he stripped to a swimsuit and dunked his head in the blood bucket. "Yup, blood qualifies as water," he said, licking his face. "Pig blood doesn't taste terrible, actually."

"I'm still using that for pudding," said Kazuya. "Don't worry; any of your saliva would burn out."

"Sure. I'm going to go jump in the lake." Soma turned into a bloody bat and terrified a bunch of hikers.

"You really told him about your past?" said Naoki.

"You just can't listen to a guy bare his heart out like that and not do the same," said Kazuya, squeezing the heart again. "And no, I did not take out the heart just to say that."

Daisuke cleared his throat. "I'm actually a pilot for a giant robot."

"I'm a demon," said Naoki. "I used to be human."

They looked at each other. "You go first."

After everyone, Kazuya included, told everyone else their stories and had a good cry, Mina said, "We should have a support group. For people who've seen things that they can't tell anyone, but they need to tell someone. People who need to keep secrets."

"Talking about our feelings really helps," said Julius, hugging Kazuya.

"Supernatural Support… Society?" said Soma.

"Catchy," said Naoki. "Especially for something that will only be just us."

The pig was delicious.

X

The summer, the SSS had grown. "We really raised enough money to rent the entire beach?" said Soma in disbelief.

"Well, we kind of have a really rich backer," said Mina. "Scratch that… two rich backers. Two rich backers and a lot of people with arbitrarily large bank accounts."

In front of them, Aigis, Kazuya, Maya Amano, Flynn, the entire playable cast of Persona, Kyouji Kuzunoha the IV, and Gerin Kuzunoha the XX had a seagull shooting contest. Both Katsuya Suous were too horrified by the irresponsibility to even try. Yukari Takeba and Ginko were having a 'pose-off' as the Pink Argus. This Side's Tatsuya Suou and Other Side's Tatsuya Suou were trying to nickname each other so that they wouldn't have as much unnecessary wordiness. Yu Narukami was telling Yoko about how he was going to be a psychologist for everyone who couldn't tell their psychologists about their weird supernatural/alien problems. Hammer was barbequing and chatting with Yukiko Amagi about cooking. Isabeau, Midori Kamiya, and Julius were having an enthusiastic talk about manga and the wonders of bread. Mitsuru Kirijo was (unsuccessfully) bribing Jyoji Hijiri into not writing articles about her operations. Daisuke was trying to wrap his head around not only Teddie considering his bear suit his body, but how Jun Kurosu and Baofu fought with flowers and coins.

"Are we going to eat all those seagulls?" asked Chihiro Makimura.

"I'm up for it," said Vicky. "Fried seagull, here we come!"

"Guess that means that I'll have to get them," said Soma, wading into the water. "You know, I don't remember using the Rahab soul in a long time. At least, I haven't really thought about it. It was just kind of there."

Mina thought back. "The last time I remember you brought it up was when you were vampirized, and you said that it protected you from the 'can't touch running water' curse."

"Good times," said Soma, gathering up the floating seagulls from below the surface and being thankful for the fact that at high velocities bullets rebound off the surface of water.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] No Hindus in SMT2: Someone in Valhalla says that the Center kills those who worship other gods. It's directed at the Gaeans, but why not real world religions? It's not like there aren't any Hindus in Japan. You may not meet any in the game, but it's not like every corner of Valhalla is explorable.

I'm a very good swimmer, but I can't tread water for very long. Especially when I can't use my hands and I only use my stomach and legs. My head keeps on falling below water. Doing those things where you bring your chest above water? Insane. Synchronized swimmers, I salute you.

I'm also afraid of swimming in water where I can't see anything. I know it's irrational, but I can't see any sharks or man o' wars or jellyfish.

Julius's father is Arvis and his uncle is Azel, but the aunt he's referring to is Hilda, not Tailto. All of them are primarily fire magic users as descendants of Fala in Fire Emblem, so they're the ones who cook.

After last chapter, I wanted to redeem Hammer. Originally, he just quit after finding out about the JEP, but I changed it to being the reason it never happened. I'm not trying to be preachy about anything.

If it's not clear, I suddenly decided to make Hammer the antique shop owner in SMT1. The ages are messed up because the timeline that they're in is the one where Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV changed history. Kazuya made the jump from his universe to this one. Raidou's interference and the butterfly effect changed when people were born, who they were born to, etc. Kazuya and Hammer had their birth dates pushed forward to the future. Technology moved a bit more slowly in this universe.

I don't include characters from games that I don't know much about. I haven't played Devil Survivor, so none of that. I may have characters severely skewed towards Persona, but that's because I've actually played Persona (Devil Summoner was just through a walkthrough). I've played through SMT1 and SMT4, but the problem is that there just aren't as many major characters in mainline SMT games (and more of them die). You really just have Hero, Heroine, Law Hero, and Chaos Hero in 1.

Every character who makes an appearance in the last section has a reason for it.

About Jyoji Hijiri: Jyoji is his first name, right?


	14. Chapter 14: Omake 2

The next chapter will take longer. I'm halfway done, but it will be a while.

OMAKE #2

If you went to a certain mountain in Japan, you would see a beautiful mountain full of nature and wildlife. If you went with a guide, you might see the tiny nooks and crannies that all mountains have.

If you were adventurous and went on your own, you would probably get lost and have to call someone. But if you were lucky, you might find a door built into the rock. The faded gray concrete blends in perfectly with the rocks, and it is nestled in such a way that it is almost impossible to see from most angles. Most who stumble upon the door find themselves…

Stuck, because the door does not allow most people through.

But for those who are sent, or come with the Guardian, the door poses no barrier. Instead of the murky darkness of a cavern, the door instead opens up to a city floating through space. Once it was called Sumaru City, but now it was named 'Freetown'. It wasn't very imaginative, but neither were the founders.

Freetown is meant to be a zone where people with powers and secrets could come and go without fear of discovery. Half demons walk arm in arm with Persona users, Magical Girls, robot pilots, and even mutants. It is chaotic, filled with demons, heavily dependent on the outside world, has very heavy taxes and rent, and is starting to get a population problem, but it is a safe haven for those who cannot live anywhere else.

The city was originally the remnants of a world destroyed. The inhabitants had found another world to live in due to a technicality in timeline resets, and so their old home was all but abandoned. If it weren't for a handful of souls, the city would have been forever lost in space.

Over two hundred years ago, a group of people with abnormal powers discovered that they were not alone. Not only did others have powers like them, they also had powers unlike each other's. Each of them had their own hidden abilities that they had vowed to keep secret, but they were still human. They realized that they all needed someone to talk to, a 'support system' if you will. They agreed to meet with each other and talk about everything that they could not tell the outside world.

The circle of friends grew into a wide organization. It would have remained what amounted to a mere secret society where the members met in basements and ate cake, if it weren't for the ambitions of a certain young man.

"I want to be a psychologist for people who can't tell normal psychologists about their supernatural or alien problems."

This innocuous statement, thought by his friends to be another way of picking up women, changed the course of history.

The young man became a successful psychologist. The Society regularly sent him clients scarred by the secret wars they were fighting, afraid of their own powers, or simply unsure of how to pursue their marriages now that their husbands or wives were possessed by hot demons from alternate dimensions. They kept visiting him in the small, disused room deep inside an old office building. Following his example, a young pilot found that those aligned with the supernatural or alien requires different treatment. Vampires had to find dentists who could ignore the fangs, mutants and hybrids needed surgeons that could adjust to the different body structure, and pretty much everyone who fought regularly required medical treatment without any awkward questions about the giant claw marks. So she became a doctor, and encouraged others in the Society to do so as well.

It was a slow process, but eventually the Society was full of people whose services catered to the strange and abnormal. Besides fighters and exorcists, there were lawyers who protected those who could not tell the court about their powers, clerks who sold weapons not from this time or world, bakers who made food for demons, butchers who would cut up monster carcasses for a fee, and many others who tried to help their fellows.

But the Society was spread all across Japan, and had already extended to other parts of the world. Employing the person who could be trusted to see if your home really was haunted was difficult when they were halfway across the world.

Eventually, the members of the Society thought that there had to be a more convenient place to meet. The refugees from the fallen world proposed their old spaceship city. With the help of the cursed Messiah, a black hole generator, magical hobnobs from raids on cults, and a lot of computers, they created doorways between the worlds, called Terminals. The Terminals were spread wherever they needed to be.

At first, the city was used as a hub for business transactions, and sometimes just as a nexus for Terminal travel. But then some homeless mages started squatting in the remains of the casino, and never saw a reason to leave. Some of the more enterprising Society members made hotels.

More Society members, realizing that there was no rent, started moving into the city and commuting to work through the Terminals. The city was called Other Sumaru City, but they had taken to calling it the Free Zone. Later, as it became less of a port and more of a town, it became known as the Free Town, or Freetown.

As the decades passed, the town needed more and more things. Crime required police. Police required taxes. Taxes required government. Eventually, Freetown had a proper government and laws. It became a city of magical and scientific immigrants. Every town that contained a Terminal had a Guardian who kept it hidden and safe, and more importantly was always on the lookout for those in need.

The Guardian of the very first Terminal was a hacker originally from Other Sumaru City who hid it in plain sight. Others included a monster born of humanity's darkness who stored the Terminal in the Collective Unconscious, a former military shopkeeper who hid it among his many monster statues, a retired mecha pilot who kept it hidden inside her old robot, an innkeeper who said it was a relic, a miko who kept it away from her family's shrine, the psychologist who kept it in his bathroom, the patriarch of the Belmont clan who stored it in the basement of his apartment, and the son of Dracula who kept it in a bunker. The Lecarde and Morris families, liberated at least temporarily from their job of monster hunting, were free to take on the hereditary job of managing Terminals.

It wasn't a perfect city. Those are impossible to find. But those who hid their strangeness from the world could bare it proudly, and no one cared enough about that to kill them.

One of the few surviving members of the original Society looked up at the city hall, the casino, and the greenhouses, and smiled. "Who would have thought that the internet's stubborn refusal to give the volume of blood in the average chicken led to the creation of all this?"

TO BE CONTINUED… Maybe.


	15. Chapter 15: Vampire

Sorry, but this is the best I could come up with for Manticore/Mushussu. I don't have many ideas for them. Yeti is next.

It turns out that I also missed Hammer, Hikaru, and Haruka (although the last two were intentional).

I wanted to avoid writing Arikado, but he's surprisingly fun to write. Even if talking so much isn't very in character.

Vampire

When Soma was a child and his parents let him watch monster movies, he wondered what was so wrong about the vampires drinking blood. "If I have to drink water when I'm thirsty, why is it bad that they need to drink blood?" he had said. He didn't understand why hurting someone a little bit was worse than killing sheep or cows. And if people usually were out in the day, why couldn't there be people who usually came out at night? He also thought that the vampire's powers were really cool.

When he moved to Spain, he knew that vampires were just monsters. They attacked people at night and made their families worry for them. And they spread their infection to hurt others, not suffering selflessly like the brave souls in quarantine. Not to mention that the power to control people and sneak into their houses was less cool when it was happening to you.

In the high school years before coming to Castlevania, Soma started to feel sorry for the vampires. They couldn't help thirsting for blood. They couldn't go into sunlight; at least humans could go out at night. You can't expect everyone to be a martyr. He couldn't really understand why immortality was a curse, but he figured that everyone complains at the life they have and even immortally young people were whiners. He still secretly thought it would be pretty cool to be one, in memory of his childhood.

While Soma was in Castlevania, he knew that vampirism was terrifying. When receiving Dracula's power, Soma recalled that his power came with the curse of vampirism. The transformation had begun. And it began to look more like a curse than ever before. Looking at his friends and seeing how lovely it would be to drink them dry scared him more than any monster in the castle. Even Legion. Luckily, Soma had stopped it before the thirst for maiden's blood became more than a nagging voice.

And in college, Soma knew that vampirism was a bloody nuisance.

"If I faint, you're paying for my hospital bills," said Kazuya.

"Yeah, yeah," Soma muttered lethargically. He sunk his razor-edge fangs into Kazuya's arm and drank the warm, delicious liquid…

"Take too much, and I'll take yours," said Kazuya, holding up his violin threateningly with the other arm.

"Mm-hm," Soma grunted.

"I don't see why it has to be just Kazuya," said Naoki, fidgeting with the makeshift blackout curtains that shielded his roommate from the rays of the setting sun. "You didn't care when we were making money."

"I told you, demon blood doesn't cut it," said Soma sleepily and through a mouthful of arm. "Your blood tastes good, but it's more like soda or ice cream. I need human blood like you need meat or vegetables."

"Stop," said Kazuya dizzily, nudging Soma to get off. He watched Soma's sluggish movements with concern. "You're not getting enough," he said in a complete reversal of his previous attitude. "Have some more."

Soma shook his head, slightly brighter eyed and more awake than before. "No, I'll need more from you later more than I need more now. Let your body heal."

"But you're thirsty," said Kazuya. "And delirious. You just used the same word three times in a sentence."

"You're anemic," said Soma. "Eat your cake. That's what people do after blood drives, right?"

"He's not lying," said Naoki. "You look awful."

Kazuya ate his chocolate cake slice. Soma looked at it enviously. "You're the one of the hardiest humans that I know, but you can't keep losing blood and expect to work like nothing's wrong," said Soma. "Julius is tough like you, but I can't drink from him. He's mostly Holy Water. Yoko can take the drain, but she's also out of the country."

"What about Hammer?" said Naoki. "He's pretty big. Wouldn't miss as much."

"He lives pretty far away," said Soma.

Naoki looked at the chair for a second. "Hey… didn't you say that you could heal anything just by sitting-"

"If I could cure hunger just by sitting down, I wouldn't be rooting through the supermarket's moldy fruits and breads," said Soma. "Blood isn't any different."

"Magic chair healing powers can only do so much, I suppose," said Naoki. Then he patted Soma on the back. "Welcome to demonhood. It's not so bad."

"Daisuke would trade his blood for that curry you make," said Kazuya.

"Can't," said Soma. "The entire team's in the hospital. They were fighting Cyber Hell. He's got a huge gash in his chest."

"I was wondering if Cyber Hell really existed," said Naoki. "He didn't seem to be doing much work."

"There's always Mina," said Kazuya. When Soma glared at him with the intensity of a bloodsucking fiend, Kazuya added levelly, "I trust that you can control yourself. If Mina were in your position, wouldn't you offer your blood? And if she refused, you'd insist anyways because you hate to see her suffer."

"I don't want her to-" Soma began, but Kazuya cut him off.

"See you like this?" said Kazuya. "Soma, you said that she wasn't scared when you were half on the way to being Dracula. She's not going to be scared off by a little vampirism." He sighed. "I thought that you had a better reason for wanting me to not tell her."

Soma gritted his teeth and wondered what would happen if he suddenly got a cavity while in this state. His dentist would freak out over the fangs. Maybe one of them should be a doctor or dentist for people who had to deal with supernatural stuff but couldn't tell their own doctor. Soma hoped that whoever it was, it wouldn't be him. He hated talking to annoying people even if he was paid for it.

"Or you could ask your spies," said Naoki. "Fourteen of them every Saturday? It'll be between a blood test and a donation for them, and you'll feel normal again afterwards."

"I was going to call the Agency when I felt better," said Soma. "They should know what to do. Their boss is a vampire anyways."

Kazuya blinked. "Then why were you looking for other donors?!" he asked loudly.

"That was for now!" protested Soma hastily. "I can't expect the Agency to do anything right away, so until then, I'd like to have some backup."

Kazuya accepted this. "Now that's out of the way, there is something I want to ask you," he said less intensely. "Does blood smell any different now that you're a vampire? How does it taste?"

Soma shrugged and relaxed. "Technically, it does taste the same. It's coppery and stuff, but now I think that it tastes good. You know how after you eat a lot of something you like and it starts tasting disgusting? It's like that, except now it tastes better and I can't get sick of it. Human blood and the blood of other species are very different. I can smell the difference. I can smell right out of your veins. And I can hear your heartbeat."

"Then why couldn't you tell that I was a demon before I told you?" asked Naoki. "You said that you could discern between blood types ever since you turned into a vampire the first time and then turned back into a human. My blood didn't change."

"I couldn't smell any blood that wasn't already outside the body until I fully turned into a vampire," said Soma. "You never bled very much."

"I didn't have time to bleed," said Naoki. "You look like you feel better now. How about you call your Agency?"

"If they ask about us, tell them that we keep your secret because you don't tell the cops that we're illegally getting drunk every weekend," said Kazuya.

"Better yet, tell them that we'll keep your secret for 100,000 yen apiece," said Naoki.

"I guess becoming a demon does make you greedy," said Kazuya.

Naoki shrugged.

Soma made the call.

X

On the morning of the previous day, Soma had been experimenting with Mina and Julius. It was a rainy Sunday. They were trying to figure out the limits and uses of the Manticore and Mushussu souls. It was a good thing that Julius didn't have very many fragile objects in his apartment, because while the prehensile tail was steerable, it had the unfortunate tendency of suddenly lunging without warning if Soma wasn't concentrating on moving it. They decided that Soma should only use it if for whatever reason his hands were tied up.

Julius had taken some of the Mushussu tail's poison in case he ever needed some for an antidote or if he had to poison someone discretely. Or discreetly.

Mina had to leave at around noon, so Soma left Julius's apartment building completely alone at around five. It was winter, so it was already dark out.

Soma liked exploring places. One might think that exploring two castles full of monsters and danger would have put someone off the habit, but that just encouraged Soma. He had emerged more powerful than before and with the souls of many monsters as proof of his conquest. So back alleyways and the bad parts of town really didn't scare Soma.

While he was taking the long, dark alleyway route back to the dorm, Soma suddenly sensed something and stopped walking. He stopped time, used the Black Panther soul to look around very quickly, and saw nothing. So he returned to his original position and just took a moment to take in the sight of the world at night. It was astonishingly peaceful.

And then Soma felt a piercing pain in the back of his neck. Months of sleeping in a warm bed did not dull his fighting reflexes, and he summoned Erinys's light magic. His attacker was flung backwards.

"Curses," she roared. "You blinded me!"

Soma decided that making a giant woman made of light definitely shot any chance of hiding the supernatural, and then made fireballs float in the air with the Buer soul in hopes of identifying the culpirt. "You're… um… who are you?"

The woman in front of him tried to glare at him, but the sudden glare of fireballs in the middle of the night forced her to make do with squinting and pointing in Soma's general direction. "You're pretty good," she tried to say haughtily, which is pretty hard when one is averting their eyes. "I am Lady Ruth, the Bloodstained Princess, Witch of the Night, and now your mistress."

"But I'm not married," said Soma, just to get a rise out of her. He noticed someone with a knife hiding behind a wall, shaking. The figure put a finger to their lips.

"Not that kind of mistress!" Ruth snapped. Soma saw her bloody fangs and put two and two together.

"You're a vampire," said Soma loudly. The hidden figure used that as his chance to get closer. "Do you think that drinking my blood a single time gives you power over me?"

Ruth shrugged. "Since it obviously didn't work, let's try a second ti-"

Soma stopped time and killed her with the Valmanway, and then was extremely relieved that vampires became ashes when they died. Having the cops get on him would be trouble. He couldn't collect Ruth's soul because she really didn't want him to Dominate her.

A few days after learning about Soma's soul-enslaving powers, Naoki had asked Soma how he felt about forcibly subjugating the souls of monsters. Naoki said that at least he and Kazuya asked and compensated their demons. So then Soma asked his demons if they really did want to be there, and why they came with him when others did not.

Soma was informed by the more sentient monsters that his soul had a pull on their own, but any reasonable amount of will was enough to escape his grasp. So almost all of the monsters he had power over in some way wanted to be Dominated. Some monsters preferred serving Soma to being bound to Castlevania or stuck serving Celia, and so took advantage of the natural pull he had on them. Others were too weak willed and apathetic to escape. The souls Soma found in lanterns could no longer muster the will to resist anyone. Some unaligned monsters joined him because they were afraid of moving on. Some stronger monsters decided that by beating them, Soma had mastered them anyways. The monsters that Soma had to seal didn't want to return to where they came from, and instead hitched a ride on him. Dmitrii was an oddity in that he killed himself just so that he could be Dominated, but many of the monsters took the view that when Soma died, they would be free. In the meantime, they had to put up with the fact that he had complete control over them, could not escape at all, and that they had no power to resist.

When Soma asked what would happen if he became Dracula and couldn't really die, the souls from Castlevania pointed out that they really wouldn't be any worse off than before.

Ruth refused to be Dominated by Soma, so her soul just left for parts unknown.

Soma crouched behind the hidden figure and waited for time to resume. The second the figure gasped at the disintegrating vampire, Soma said, "Boo!"

The figure spun around and stabbed Soma in the shoulder with the knife, which Soma quickly learned was blessed. Before Soma could slash the figure into oblivion, he recognized him. "Saitou!?"

At the sound of his name, the figure stopped his attack. "Soma? Don't scare me like that! I might have killed you!"

"Eh, I've had worse," said Soma, yanking the knife out in exactly the manner that you're not supposed to.

"We need to get you to a hospital right away!" said Saitou.

Soma summoned Alura Une, who hugged him tightly until he was fully healed. Saitou just stared at him. "Does your girlfriend know that you cuddle with hot naked monster plant girls?" he asked.

"Mina isn't my girlfriend!" said Soma hotly.

"Yeah, yeah," said Saitou. "Do you feel better?"

"I'm fine," said Soma grumpily. "I'm going back to the dorm. I just want to sleep."

Saitou offered to help him home, but Soma declined. Instead of eating, Soma crashed straight into bed.

X

When Soma woke up, he felt groggy. This is perfectly normal for everyone. He didn't want to get up. Again, still normal. He was also thirsty. Normal.

When Kazuya told him to get up, Soma thought he smelled delicious. And not like 'Just made cookies' delicious. He thought that Kazuya's neck looked appetizing…

Not normal.

"Kazuya?" he said weakly.

Kazuya looked at him with concern. He had the Mom's power to tell when their children are playing hooky and when they're really sick. "Are you all right?" he asked sincerely.

"Everything feels weak," said Soma faintly. "I'm thirsty."

Kazuya produced a cup of water and gave it to Soma. "Still thirsty?" he asked. "You look pale. I'll make you some tea."

Naoki sat up on his bed and yawned. "It's really stuffy in here," he said, opening the blinds so that he could open the window.

"GGAAAYYAAH!" Soma shouted the second the rays of the rising sun hit his body. His body started to steam.

Kazuya blocked most of the sun with his body, allowing Soma to crawl underneath the sheets to safety.

"The hell was that?" everyone said in unison. Naoki shut the blinds, and Soma crawled out of the bed.

Soma thought back to the night before. "I… there was a vampire… in the alley… last night."

"Did she bite you?" asked Naoki.

Soma nodded.

"So you're probably a vampire now," said Naoki.

Soma's jaw dropped. "No…" he said, shaking. "I… I'm not Dracula, I—wait, it really doesn't feel like he's there. Never mind."

"That's good to know," said Kazuya. "I don't want to kill you. I like you." Before Soma could say anything, he added, "It's pretty sunny out. Stay inside. We'll take notes for you. You can have a quick drink." He rolled up his left sleeve. "Not the neck. I'm a bit antsy about people touching parts of me that I need to live. Shame that I already used up all that pig's blood."

Soma gratefully drank from Kazuya, and then from Naoki. "I need to sleep," he said, and collapsed onto his bed. "Don't tell Mina!" he called after his roommates' retreating backs.

X

"… And that's why I'm a vampire," Soma finished.

The Agency guy he was calling then said, "All right, one of us will pick you up in a green van. You didn't tell anyone, did you?"

"Who could I tell?" retorted Soma.

The driver turned out to be Saitou. "Wasn't your shift yesterday?" asked Soma. "I know you keep on trading them, but it's a bit ridiculous for you to be working like this."

"Hikaru had to leave," he said. "His sister's in the hospital."

"Oh," said Soma, not really sure how to respond. "Is she all right?"

"She's in and out all the time," said Saitou. "Gets into a lot of fights. She should be fine." He pursed his lips. "Listen, Soma, I'm sorry I couldn't help. Truth be told, I'm still terrified of monsters."

Soma nodded. It struck him that when he first entered Castlevania, he wasn't scared at all. Sure, the scrapes with death were terrifying, and he was scared that the giant skeleton was too big to be killed, but the idea that he was fighting monsters wasn't that frightening. He would have been just as scared if bludgeoned by a skeleton's bones or by a crazy biker. [1] "Saitou, that was incredibly brave," he said. "You didn't run. You tried to k… take her on."

"I admit that the thought of running never crossed my mind," said Saitou. "I mean… you're a student. You have weird powers, yes, but I've been training since I graduated high school. I may be a greenhorn, but I'm still an agent. You shouldn't have to deal with things like this." He sighed. "But you've dealt with stuff like this before, haven't you? You were way too calm back there. Right now, I feel like the stupid authority figure who keeps the kid hero from saving his friends. Who are you, anyways?"

Soma groaned. "Sorry, Saitou, but I can't deal with this right now."

"Ah, I'm talking too much," said Saitou.

When Soma got to Headquarters, Arikado called him up to his office. Soma knew that it was inevitable and that Arikado knew a lot, but he still didn't like holding serious conversations with him. Even if he didn't lie, Arikado was always evasive about anything that he didn't want to talk about, and it was impossible to get answers out of him. Not only that, but Soma always got the feeling that Arikado could read minds.

The only thing that kept Soma away from that notion was that he knew that Arikado didn't know that Soma knew everything about him ever since he gained Dracula's memories. At least, Soma knew everything Dracula that knew about him. Soma was pretty sure that Arikado didn't know, because he took the time to explain things that Soma already knew. Soma decided that telling Arikado about how he knew everything about him wasn't terribly important and made good blackmail material in case of emergency.

"So due to a random twist of fate, you are now a vampire," said Arikado, looking at Soma suspiciously. "You look too healthy. You drank from someone."

Soma nodded. "My roommates found out. They offered me their blood. They were cool about it."

"And you didn't drink from anyone else?"

"No; I haven't left my room since the night I was turned, except to use the bathroom," said Soma. "It was too sunny, and I kept falling asleep."

Arikado nodded. "We should check for standard vampire weaknesses before you leave. Are you sure that sunlight hurts you, or were you just trying to be safe?"

Soma nodded. "My roommates found me out when one of them opened the blinds on me."

"I suppose that it unavoidable," said Arikado. "Are you sure that they will not tell anyone?"

"Positive," said Soma, and prepared to lie. He hated lying to Arikado; it wasn't out of any guilt or fear of disappointment, it was just that Arikado always seemed to know. He'd look at Soma and say that he understood, but both of them knew that Soma was lying. Then Soma thought of an alternative. "They have their secrets, and I have mine. I'm keeping secrets for them anyways."

"And what secrets might those be?"

"I can't tell you," said Soma.

Arikado's expression barely changed, but Soma knew that he was satisfied. Dracula and Alucard had been feuding for centuries, but at the very least Dracula had Alucard's expressions nailed. "Very well, then."

"Can you cure me?" asked Soma.

Arikado nodded. "The Sanctuary spell is the best way to cure vampirism. It has no side effects."

"But there's a catch," said Soma. "There has to be one."

"It is a very advanced spell, and only a few people in the world can cast it," said Arikado. "I cannot. Yoko Belnades can, but she is currently in Canada on a mission. She cannot return for another week. And that is only if everything goes well."

Soma nodded. Yoko helping other people was more important than him being in bed for a week. Then he paused. "Aren't you working? In the same line of work as Yoko?"

"Helping you will not involve a double flight and abandoning people depending on me, and I believe that this may be more important," said Arikado seriously. "Has Dracula's influence reached you in any way?"

Soma shook his head. "No. I thought that it might, but nothing. No memories, no hatred, no desire to plunge the world into unending hellfire. I'm just thirsty and I hate sunlight. Does vampirism generally change the victim's personality?"

"Usually, yes," said Arikado. "Besides the bloodlust, the victim's personality is twisted in some way."

"Oh, great," moaned Soma. "Something else to look forward to."

"…The victim's personality is twisted immediately after full transformation, which I believe that you have achieved," elaborated Arikado. "I cannot at present gauge any personality changes. I would say that at the moment, any quirks in personality can be attributed to stress."

"All right then," said Soma. "I have more questions."

"Go ahead, but we need to finish the testing by dawn," said Arikado.

"First, how does a vampire turn someone into another vampire?" asked Soma. "The one who turned me did it with just a bite. If everyone who was bitten by a vampire became a vampire, then we'd be up to our necks in them."

"Vampires generally do not try to turn their victims, because that would reduce the food supply and increase competition," said Arikado.

"You sound like a nature documentary person."

"Do you want me to answer your question or not?" said Arikado with a warning tone.

"Sorry. Stress. And thirst."

"Before you commit this to memory, keep in mind that there is no one strain of vampirism," said Arikado. "There are no hard and fast rules. I am only going over the more common types of vampirism."

Soma nodded. "I read something like that once. 'There are as many types of vampire as there are disease; some are virulent and deadly, and some just make you walk funny and avoid fruit.'"

"Ingesting the blood of a vampire turns the drinker into a vampire," said Arikado. "Vampires usually turn their victims by injecting their own blood right into their victim's bloodstream. Their fangs are hollow, after all."

"All right," said Soma. "But if vampires don't like competition, then why did that vampire try to turn me?"

Arikado shrugged. "Did your attacker say anything?"

Soma thought back. "She said that she was my new mistress."

Arikado, for once, had a dumbfounded look. "Did you get married?"

"Not that kind of mistress," said Soma. "I asked. I wonder why the word mistress can mean either a woman with power or a woman who cheats. Anyways, that sounds like the plot of a bad supernatural romance. Woman wants a married man, and turns him into a vampire to get him."

"So she wanted to turn you into her servant," said Arikado. "There are many different kinds of vampires. Some can control their victims. Others cannot. Some have mind control powers but decide to turn them anyways, for immortal service."

"Now that sounds more like the plot of a bad supernatural thriller," said Soma. "Powerful demon turns a human into a monster, but the human rebels and kills the monster."

"Or perhaps she wanted to sow chaos by turning a lot of different people," said Arikado.

"I guess that's a bad supernatural… I don't know."

"Any other questions? Because you need to know which weaknesses you do and do not have. We do not know what kind of vampire turned you."

Soma sighed. "This is going to hurt."

X

Arikado first took out a small mirror and handed it to Soma, facing down so that Soma could not see that Arikado did not have a reflection. Soma did not have a reflection either.

"Arikado?" he asked.

"Do you still have a reflection or not?" asked Arikado, staying cool on the outside.

"I don't have a reflection, but that brings up a lot of questions. I understand that vampires aren't reflected in mirrors, but how are my clothes not reflected either?"

Arikado's expression did not change, but Soma could tell that he was considering Soma's point. "An excellent question. I suggest that you pursue that line in your own dorm. We need to check for weaknesses."

Arikado led Soma to a bunker in the basement, stopping to pick up a briefcase, a tiny bag of rice, a broom and dustpan, a notebook and pen, and various other objects.

"Test #1," said Arikado. He scattered the rice all over the floor.

Soma stared. "Was that supposed to hurt?"

"What do you think about it?"

"It's a waste of food," said Soma.

"Are you going to clean it up?"

"Why?" said Soma. "You're the one that scattered it."

Arikado wrote something in his notebook. "I will give you 1000 yen if you clean up the rice."

1000 yen was 1000 yen, so Soma asked for the broom and dustpan and then started sweeping.

"All right, that's good enough," said Arikado, handing him the 1000 yen. "Some vampires have a compulsion to pick up poppy seeds, sand, or grains of rice, and count them one at a time. You have no such impulse, it seems."

Soma whistled. "Sesame Street was right."

"What is Sesame Street?" asked Arikado.

"Children's TV show. Watched it all the time when I was a kid. There was this hand puppet called Count Von Count, and he really loved to count…" Soma trailed off and realized how ridiculous it was to talk about a fictional vampire made to entertain small children with the half vampire son of the Dark Lord. Especially since Soma technically was said Dark Lord. "Never mind."

Arikado then took Soma to the sink in the back and told him to wash his hands. Soma did so. Arikado wrote something else in his notebook. "Vampires are weak against water," he explained. "Unless they somehow bypass it with magic or sheer power, water is as acid to them."

Soma turned off the Rahab soul and put his hand underneath the tap. It steamed, and Soma jerked his hand away. "Huh. So the Rahab soul protects me from being hurt by water. Good to know."

"We should see if any other soul will negate the weaknesses," said Arikado.

"Are you really going to make me do potentially dangerous things without telling me?" asked Soma.

"Are you currently under the Rahab soul's protection?" asked Arikado.

Soma nodded. "You want me to wash my hands again?"

Arikado turned on another tap, and a small trickle of water came out. He collected some water in a cup and poured it on Soma's hands.

They caught fire.

Soma cursed and pushed the cup into Arikado, who also caught fire.

"Holy water?" snarled Soma. "You have a Holy Water tap!?"

"It appears that you are now vulnerable-"

"Holy Water has always set more on fire!" shouted Soma.

"Has it gotten worse?"

"How should I know? I was too busy freaking out that we're both on fire!" Soma glared at Arikado. "Why were you set on fire, too?"

Soma was impressed on how Arikado took the heat coolly. But again annoyed. "I believe that you might be able to figure out the answer."

Soma took this as proof that Arikado did not know that he was a vampire. If he said 'figure out' instead of 'already know,' then it insinuates that he does not think Soma cheated and skipped ahead.

"Could you at least tell me when I'm going to get hurt?" said Soma.

"Soma, we are testing to see what will hurt you. Pain is inevitable."

"I already know that holy object hurt me as long as they're blessed," said Soma. "Can we skip those?"

Arikado took out a cross and held it to Soma's forehead. Nothing happened. "I stand corrected," said Soma.

"That was just two popsicle sticks glued together," said Arikado. "I wanted to test if you were weak to unblessed objects in the shape of religious symbols."

"Arikado, if you're going to hurt me, at least give me time to brace myself!" said Soma.

"If you consciously brace yourself, it might skew the results," said Arikado. "But that is the last time I will hurt you without telling. Now we need to know if any souls will protect you from your weakness to real holy objects."

"None of them do," said Soma.

"And how do you know that?" asked Arikado.

"I've always been weak against holy objects, and I did testing with Julius," said Soma. "We wanted to see the effects they had on me. If no souls helped my weakness then, they're not going to help now."

Arikado nodded.

"Are we going to see if wooden stakes through the heart work?" asked Soma.

"We are not going to try anything that is meant to kill you to see if you're immune," said Arikado. "That would be stupid. We can leave the sunlight weakness until dawn. In the meantime, there is something else I want to try. Are you thirsty?"

"Like I haven't drank anything all day," said Soma.

Arikado took out a bottle from his briefcase. "Drink it."

"Is it Holy Water?" said Soma suspiciously.

"Seawater," said Arikado. "If you are immune to running water, it should not hurt you."

Soma took a sip. It didn't hurt him. He took a swig, and his thirst was quenched. He still felt dehydrated, but he wasn't thirsty. It didn't exactly taste bad, but Soma didn't want any more.

"How do you feel?" asked Arikado.

"I'm not thirsty anymore, but I don't feel much better," said Soma.

Arikado nodded. When Soma waited for an explanation, none came. "I guess it's because blood and seawater have very similar compositions," said Soma. "But it's not the same."

"It is not," said Arikado.

"Why do you conveniently have seawater?" asked Soma. "We live near the mountains, far away from the sea."

"I believe that you have enough evidence to figure it out," said Arikado.

Soma realized that Arikado was never going to tell him. "It's because you're a vampire, too," he said.

"And why do you say that?" said Arikado.

"First, Mina said that you haven't aged in over a decade," said Soma. "And Julius told me that you're the one who planned the attack in Castlevania almost forty years ago. You try to avoid mirrors; you gave me the hand mirror face down. And it would have been a bit easier to stop by at the men's bathroom. Unless you were afraid to not be seen."

Arikado was silent.

"When you tested me, you avoided touching the holy objects," Soma added. "You were lit on fire when the Holy Water touched you. And that seawater was meant to quench your thirst, not mine. The only anomalies are that I've met you in sunlight before, and that you still smell human and edible. But since I haven't met any other vampires, I don't have any evidence for the last one."

Yup. The easiest mysteries are the ones where you already know the answer.

"That is true," said Arikado seriously. "I am a vampire. But if you leak out one word of this to anyone-"

"I understand," said Soma. "But you weren't exactly subtle about it. Mina noticed you first."

"I am more careful when it comes to others," said Arikado. "Mina and her family were unavoidable. Most other people aren't."

"Most people are unavoidable, or most people are avoidable?" asked Soma.

"Most people can be avoided."

Soma decided that the tone in Arikado's voice was a sign to end the conversation. "If you're a vampire, I have more questions to ask," said Soma.

Arikado just looked at him in silence.

"Would animal blood work as a better substitute than seawater?" asked Soma. "I mean, not counting problems like access or storage."

"Animal blood is not as good as human blood, but it does help with the symptoms of thirst," said Arikado. "Vampires need human blood. Both seawater and animal blood will extend the time before the bloodthirst consumes the vampire, and animal blood gives a longer period than seawater."

"All right then," said Soma. "Do vampires still need to poop and pee?"

"Vampires need to urinate, but it is only possible to poop if they eat regular food," said Arikado. "Speaking of which, eat this. You should find out if you can still eat human food."

Arikado gave Soma a corner of an energy bar. Soma threw up and choked on it.

"That answers that question," muttered Soma. "Where do you get your blood from?"

Arikado stopped and gave Soma what should have been a severe look if he wasn't so stoic. "That is a very personal question."

"Yes, but I'll be needing more than one blood source," said Soma. "I can't feed on my roommates all the time."

"I drink from other members of the Agency who know my secret and are duly compensated," said Arikado. "Rarely, though. I am a vampire that can eat regular food." What was left unsaid was that he was a vampire that _needed_ human food. Soma knew that Arikado could not go long periods of time on just blood or normal food, but the split did not have to be right down the middle. When Alucard lived with his father during his bloodthirsty war upon mankind, he went six days on blood and one day on food. It had to be more even when he was a child, though. Soma presumed that Arikado ate food for six days and blood for one, not counting extensions with animal blood and seawater.

"How long of an extension does that give you?" asked Soma.

"Six days with food alone," said Arikado.

Soma wondered if this was true of all vampires that could eat human food, or just half vampires. He decided that he should not ask.

Arikado put the salt water back into the bag. "Soma, how did you gain the power to turn into a bat?"

"I Dominated the souls of the Giant Bat and Bat Company," said Soma. "Why?"

"Turning into bats, wolves, cats, toads, mist, and rats are all powers that vampires have featured," said Arikado.

Soma made sure that neither of the bat souls were equipped, and then did the thing that usually hit the switch that turned him into a bat (it was very hard to describe). He became a bat. Then he turned back.

Arikado wrote that down in his notebook.

Soma tried turning into the other things that Arikado described. Dracula's memories helpfully indicated the 'switches' for wolf and mist form, but pressing the wolf form switch did nothing. He couldn't tell whether he physically could not turn into a cat, toad, or rat, or if he didn't know which switches to press. Maybe it was both.

Mist form was just weird. Again, Soma couldn't tell if the brief period he could stay in mist form was really because of the limits of his magic, or if he was too freaked out by the absence of a real body to do anything.

Arikado tried to test if Soma had superhuman strength, but Soma pointed out that he already had superhuman strength. They spent about an hour placing heavy objects onto a couch for Soma to lift before they decided that Soma did not have additional superhuman strength.

As they exited the bunker, Soma suddenly stopped. "You said that there are many different kinds of vampires. What kind of vampire was Dracula?"

Arikado stopped. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"What kinds of powers and weaknesses did he have? Was he the kind who could control the ones he turned?"

"And why would you think that I would know?" asked Arikado.

Soma realized that telling Arikado that it was because he knew that he was Dracula's son would be a bad idea.

"Dracula is weak against holy objects like you are," said Arikado, ignoring Soma's pause. "He never had a compulsion towards poppy seeds. He was hurt by running water, but never by sunlight. He was too powerful for the sun to affect him."

"Could he eat food?" asked Soma.

"I do not know," said Arikado. "He had the power to transform into a bat, a wolf, mist, and also various demonic forms."

"Was he the kind of vampire that could control his victims?" asked Soma.

"No and yes," said Arikado. "No in that infection did not make them subservient, but yes in that full infection counts as killing the victim."

"And they're free to be Dominated once turned," Soma finished. "Dracula had a stronger attraction towards souls than I do. He could take the souls of people who didn't want to be Dominated. The older souls from Castlevania told me that," he added, managing to say it not quickly enough to attract suspicion.

Dawn was breaking outside. "Soma, which souls do you think will help you against sunlight?" asked Arikado.

Soma was dreading this bit. "Off the top of my head… Erinys and Valkyrie are the only light elementals, and I have too many fire elemental demons. I'll just test them all."

Soma quickly found out that none of them really worked. Erinys and Valkyrie only protected him a little bit, and the Flame Demon just made the burns heal faster and come slower. He thought that the Bone Pillar soul of all things helped, but it turned out that a cloud happened to pass over the sun.

"Agh, stupid sunlight," moaned Soma.

"It appears that you cannot return to your school until nightfall," said Arikado. "I believe that it will be sunny for the rest of the day. You may stay here until you are able to leave."

Arikado reached into his briefcase. Soma sighed and anticipated more pain. Instead, Arikado handed him a DS and a box of games. "You may play any of these as long as you do not save over my files," he said seriously. "If you play my Pokémon games and decide to grind or catch any Pokémon that I do not have, you may save over them. Just do not fight any Gym Leaders. And if you trigger any plot events, tell me what happens."

Arikado handed Soma the keys to the bunker and the bottle of seawater.

X

Playing video games and drinking things with no nutritional value all day is not very fun when it is all you have to do. So Soma was elated when his friends came to Agency Headquarters.

"I told Mina where you were," said Kazuya. "She told Julius. Julius knew where HQ was, so he brought us here."

"I had to tell the guards that they were with me," said Julius. "They started freaking out when Naoki tripped up all the wards."

"Good thing I'm immune to pretty much everything," said Naoki. "Except Almighty. And guns. And earth magic. And wind magic. No one's immune to Almighty, found out the bit about guns and earth magic from a demon cannibal tribe with similar powers to mine, and the last one was from a bad run-in with Kazuya's cousin's boyfriend."

"Is it a good idea to tell people what you're weak to?" said Mina.

"I'm not weak to it; it's just that I'm not immune," corrected Naoki. "You're not immune to being slapped, but being slapped doesn't kill you. Unless the slapper is very strong."

"You're horrible with analogies, you know that, Kashima?" said Daisuke. He was in a wheelchair but had recovered from his injuries very nicely. Secret government technology, presumably.

"Oi, Soma!" said Hammer. "You look kind of pale. Are you eating enough?"

"Are you offering?" asked Soma.

"Oh, right," said Hammer. "Vampire. Forgot about that."

Leon was the only one who did not look happy to see Soma. He was frowning and looking at Soma as if Leon was a bomb disposal person and Soma was a tricky mine. It dawned upon Soma that he did not have the Ghost Dancer soul on. He could see Leon much more clearly now that he was technically dead.

"So you're a vampire now," said Leon in a serious, flat tone. Once again, Soma could see Leon as the knight and vampire hunter he was in life. It was usually covered up by the grandmotherly love of his descendants and chattiness, but at the core he was the founder of the Belmont clan and the reason they killed Dracula. You just couldn't fight the undead for decades and stay sane without the ability to be dead serious.

Soma also remembered that the whole reason they had the Vampire Killer was because Sara was half transformed into a vampire and couldn't stand it. "Um… hello, Leon," he said. "I'm still myself…"

"That's what they all say," said Leon in a voice that seemed calm on the surface, but Dracula knew could launch into shouting and murder. The first person Dracula knew on the receiving end of this voice was Stanley.

Leon just stared and frowned. At least he wasn't in 'kill all vampires' mode, just in 'this might be a threat' mode. Dracula remembered a time where Leon wasn't sure if the mushrooms were safe to eat or not, and he had the exact same expression. It turned out that they were safe, but not pleasant to eat. Mathis found that out the hard way.

"We voted Hammer had to give you blood because he was the biggest," said Mina. "Kazuya said he already gave to you several times."

"Hello, Julius, Ms. Hakuba," said Arikado from the other door. "From my observations, Soma has not gone through any significant twisting of personality since his turning. Who are you?"

It was at this moment that Soma realized that he had just put a half demon and a half vampire in the same room together. He was pretty sure that both of them could smell the other's nonhuman-ness. This was bad.

Or it would have been, if it weren't for Leon.

"Adrian!" the ghost shouted in joy, and did what was best described as a sprinting glide towards the half vampire ending in a bear hug. "I haven't seen you in centuries~! You've grown so much!"

Naoki's jaw dropped. Everyone else wondered what just happened.

Unfortunately, Leon was the kind of ghost that emitted magic that made living people feel better but hurt the undead. So when Arikado started steaming, he tried to gently release himself from Leon's embrace.

"I know he's pretty, but there's no reason to stare," Daisuke said to Naoki.

"Leon is hugging him," said Naoki. "And he's being hurt."

"Oh, sorry, Adrian," said Leon. "I forgot that we couldn't touch each other."

"You two know each other?" said Soma. For some reason, he couldn't imagine Leon and Arikado together. Then again, Leon and Mathias were best friends. Both Leon and Alucard were estranged from Dracula, but if they weren't, Soma wouldn't be surprised Leon considered himself Adrian's honorary uncle. And they were both undead with ties to Dracula and the Belmonts. It's a wonder that Soma never put them together.

Julius cleared his throat. "Hammer, Kazuya, Naoki, Daisuke, this is Genya Arikado, senior agent of the Agency of Supernatural Investigation. Arikado, this is Kazuya, Naoki, and Daisuke. They go to Soma's college. Arikado, I don't know what Leon is doing to you, and I apologize if something's wrong."

Hammer said hello. Kazuya and Daisuke each gave a noncommittal, "Pleased to meet you," and Naoki shyly nodded.

Arikado tried to remain stoic while being hugged and injured by his honorary uncle. He managed it. Soma knew that Arikado was trying to process what was going on. Soma was pretty sure that the spies' reports included the names and photos of his roommates, and maybe Hammer since he visited him so often. He wasn't so sure about Daisuke. But there was no way that Leon was in the reports. It was sometimes really awkward when two people you meet under different circumstances turn out to know each other. It was a sign that the world did not revolve around you.

What's more, his roommates smelled like demon. It was hard to lose the scent of blood and gore that accumulates from demon hunting. Worse still, while Kazuya just smelled like old blood (and the general detritus that comes from living with demons), Naoki's was fresh and inside his veins.

Soma cleared his throat. "Arikado, as you can probably tell… Naoki's a demon, and Kazuya's a hunter."

When both of his roommates balked at Soma's outburst, he snapped, "He would have figured it out anyways, and this way he doesn't think you're a threat. The only way we could avoid this conversation is if you avoided him entirely."

Arikado glared at Soma. Unlike most people, he actually had a pretty penetrating glare. "How long did you know this?"

"About a month," said Soma, starting to sweat. "They asked me not to tell the Agency because they didn't want their lives to be interrupted."

"Then why tell him now?" snapped Naoki. "You swore-"

"He would have found out eventually," Julius vouched. "The three of you looked like you were about to pounce. Can we just get this out of the way so we don't kill each other?"

Naoki grumbled, but Kazuya was surprisingly stable. "My name is Kazuya, I am Soma's roommate, and I am a demon summoner. I have a lot of experience in the field and I understand the dangers. I will not be lending my services to anyone unless we have a common goal. If you want to hear anything else, you'll have to tell me more about yourself."

Arikado nodded. "You may call me Genya Arikado. You heard everything else that I am willing to tell you from Julius."

 _Allergic to telling people about himself, indeed_ , thought Soma.

"My name is Naoki Kashima, and I am a demon who used to be human," said Naoki testily. "I don't want any trouble, but if that's all you want to say, that's all I'm going to tell you."

Soma was a bit surprised about the sudden reversal of personalities that his roommates showed. Normally, Kazuya was the rude one and Naoki was helpful. But then again, in a situation like this, Kazuya knew from his life as a mayor and summoner how to be conciliatory. When he actually sensed danger, Naoki knew how to not seem like a pushover and at the same time be wary. Neither were inherently bad approaches to negotiation.

"They're on our side," said Soma.

"Technically, we're on our own side," said Kazuya. "But neither of us want any trouble. Everyone here knows about Soma being Dracula. We don't want that, and we're not going to kill him to stop it."

There was a long silence. Daisuke was relieved that while he was much stronger than a normal person, it was not immediately obvious that he was a mecha pilot.

Leon cleared his nonexistent throat. "Adrian, I trust them. I know you don't want to tell them your past, and neither do they. They told me, and I assure you that they are fine."

This was enough for Arikado. "By the way, Naoki and Soma can see me," said Leon.

Arikado froze, for once unable to speak rather than unwilling.

"Don't call him Adrian, by the way," Leon announced. "He doesn't like that. I can call him that. You can't."

"I was turned into a demon by Lucifer," said Naoki. When everyone stared at him, he said, "If I know something about him that he doesn't want me to know, I'm going to tell him something that I don't want him to know. That's just fair."

This calmed down Arikado. "Anyways, Soma is safe to leave the Agency as long as the sun is covered," he said. "After he drinks his fill tonight, he will need one drink every four days if he extends with seawater. If you are donating, eat red meat, cereals, and sugar. Do not donate twice in a row."

Soma looked around. "Okay, the only people here who are eligible are Kazuya, Hammer, and Mina," he said, stumbling a bit at the last names. "Naoki's blood has no… nutrients, and Julius is full of Holy Water. Daisuke, I don't think that it's a good idea to drink your blood until you're fully recovered. Leon… you don't have a body."

Mina raised her hand. "Just out of curiosity, do we need to pass the blood donation requirements? I mean, we're all heavy enough and at least 18, but what about diseases?"

"Vampires cannot catch diseases from drinking the blood of the infected," said Arikado. "Otherwise disease would be spread much more quickly."

"Kind of like mosquitoes, eh?" said Hammer. "Now I'm thinking of vampire repelling bug spray."

"I could put Holy Water in a spray bottle," said Julius. "That's close enough."

As Soma left the Agency in a heavy coat Kazuya had provided, he said, "I can't believe he never found out about the experiments."

Mina looked thoughtful. "Now that you're a vampire, we have lots to get to."

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Soma isn't scared of monsters: It struck me that Soma and Maria are the only untrained Castlevania protagonists. They just found their powers upon coming to Castlevania. They really need nerves of steel, more so than the many professional vampire hunters, knights, pirates, vampires, mages, etc.

I was considering a part where Arikado gets mad at the spies for not telling him about the supernatural roommates, but then I thought of plausible deniability. If the roommates are trying to hide, it's not the spies' job to find their secrets. For all Arikado knows, Kazuya hides in a basement to summon and Naoki does demon things elsewhere.

Arikado does know that Daisuke is a mecha pilot because of his correspondence with the director of FALCON. But he doesn't know that the others know about FALCON, so he didn't expose him. It would have been funny, though.

By the way, being weak to holy water is not the same as triggering the fire. Naoki triggers it but the fire does not hurt him.

The chapter got too long. I don't usually care about things like length until the scroll bar is just a tiny sliver.


	16. Chapter 16: Vampire Experiments

I'm having a bit too much fun with vampire lore. And the timeline.

If anyone is wondering why they didn't get Charlotte to cure Soma, it's because I wanted to have this chapter. Besides, she's over a hundred and lives on another continent. If she's still alive.

To Guest (I hope you know who you are): I'll do a Dracula chapter, but it will have to be an omake. Because the consequences of Dracula waking up would most likely result in either Soma being killed, the world being destroyed, or other fun stuff that would make the rest of the story impossible. It would be a fun chapter, though. You might have to wait in line.

All this timeline tinkering makes me think that I'll need to do a lot of retconning much later down the line. Oh well. I want to see how far I can go before I'm in a corner.

Experiments Revisited

"Wow, you really don't have a reflection," said Naoki. After leaving the Agency, everyone decided that they needed more answers. So they went to Julius's apartment. Julius made everyone except for Soma Holy Water tea, which they all liked. Even though the tea caught on fire the second it touched Naoki, he still liked the taste.

"Does anyone have a camera?" asked Mina. "Do you think Soma appears in pictures?"

Everyone got out their phones and disposable cameras and took pictures. Soma did not appear in any of them.

"This is kind of freaky and kind of cool," said Naoki. "Hey, could you do something for me that I've always wanted to see? Have you ever stood between two mirrors? Your face gets in the way of really seeing what's in the center. Could you tell me what it looks like? Or better yet, take a picture."

Soma went into Julius's bathroom with the hand mirror and his phone. Several seconds later, he came out looking surprised. "It didn't work," he said.

"There was actually a mirror monster in the center and you're actually evil mirror Soma?" asked Daisuke. When everyone stared at him, he said, "What? Ridiculous stuff keeps on happening to us. Why is this any weirder?"

"No, I still have a reflection. Kind of. Come in."

It was kind of hard to shove everyone into Julius's bathroom, especially because Daisuke was still in a wheelchair and Hammer was a pretty big guy. Soma stood between the bathroom mirror and the hand mirror, slightly squished. "Take a look."

"I don't see anything," said Naoki.

"That's because my body's blocking your view," said Soma. "Someone who can actually see the mirror?"

Mina gasped. "I can see your reflection in the mirror!" When she realized what she said, she clarified, "In the large mirror, I can see the small mirror. When the small mirror appears in the large mirror, it shows Soma." She took a picture with her phone. "Now it's reversed. I can't see the real Soma in this picture, but I can see his reflection in the large mirror, and the small mirror doesn't show him."

"Could you say that again?" asked Hammer.

"If my image is reflected an even number of times, it appears," said Soma. "From one point of view, my image is first reflected onto the large mirror, and then it is reflected onto the small mirror. From another point of view, my image is first reflected off of the small mirror, and then that image is put onto the large mirror."

"That makes no sense," said Kazuya.

"Kazuya, we're talking about vampires," said Julius. "Having something that doesn't show up in mirrors to begin with doesn't make sense."

"Can everyone line up their phones?" said Mina. She herded the others so that the large mirror was behind Soma and all of the phone cameras (and the disposable one) were taking pictures of the previous one's screen. Then she instructed the others to take pictures, from outside in.

The pictures either showed Soma or his reflection; the picture from the camera closest to the mirror showed the real Soma, the one right out of that showed the reflection, and all the others alternated between showing real and reflection. "This is really cool," said Mina. She took a picture of one of the pictures, and it turned out into a slightly degraded copy. "So if it's not a live feed or mirror, it doesn't reverse. Pretty cool. I wonder why?"

No one had an answer. "Like I said, having people who don't turn up in mirrors to begin with is already ridiculous," said Julius. "We'll need a lot of experiments and lots of people to figure out this one."

They did eventually get enough people once the SSS got big enough, but they still couldn't figure it out.

"I'm going to try the Paranoia soul," announced Soma. "It's the one that lets me go into mirrors. I'm not sure if it will work now that I don't have a reflection. If it does, I want you to take pictures."

The soul still worked. The camera showed a completely empty space; not only did the reflection not appear, the place where Soma should have been standing was blank as well. When they tried the multiple camera trick, Soma appeared only in the mirror. He made it out safely.

"I want to test something else out," said Soma. "Everyone who does not want to see me naked, please get out."

"What are you going to do?" asked Mina warily.

"We've established that you can't see my reflection, but why can you see the mirror that I'm holding and not my clothes? What doesn't get reflected? Just clothing? I doubt it's just what I was wearing when I was turned. Do my clothes still show up even if I'm not wearing them? Can I borrow someone's jacket? And Julius, do you have any short sleeved or sleeveless shirts? I'll be stripping to see when my clothes start appearing and disappearing."

"I think I've read something like this once," said Julius, giving him the requested shirt. "There was a guy in ancient China who disproved the existence of ghosts by saying that if ghosts are the product of the spirit of the dead person, and ghosts are depicted as fully clothed, then that insinuates that the clothes of the person have a spirit as well. Then he met a real ghost. It sounds stupid when I say it now."

"Ghosts tend to appear naked," said Naoki, and Kazuya nodded.

"They appear as blobs or Yoshi skeletons to me," said Soma.

"Giant flaming skulls are pretty common," said Julius.

"And I'm not naked," said Leon.

Soma and Naoki were silenced. "I forgot about you," said Naoki.

"I'm going to go strip now," said Soma, taking off his gloves.

Kazuya handed him his jacket, and everyone left the bathroom. Soma came out ten minutes later with a notebook. Then when everyone else started shouting, he went back in and came out fully clothed.

"If my clothes can be considered to be worn, they are not reflected," he said, still red in the face. "This includes things that are half on, like having just the sleeves of the coat or having your pants halfway off."

"Are you… do you want to continue this in front of Mina?" asked Julius.

"As of two minutes ago, I don't care anymore," said Mina, also red.

"Your jacket stopped showing up when I put both my sleeves through, Kazuya," said Soma, handing it back. "Putting it all the way on and then withdrawing the sleeves did not make it show up again. Taking it off and then wrapping the sleeves around my waist made it vanish the second I knotted it."

"Useful to know," said Kazuya, and put it on.

"Long sleeved shirts disappear when my arms go through the sleeves," said Soma. "Same with short sleeved shirts, when my arms go into the holes. Pants disappear when I put either one leg completely through, or when both legs go halfway. Jewelry and stuff comes out when unbuckled or whatever. Underwear vanishes when it stops covering the stuff that needs to be covered. Socks stops showing up when my foot is in entirely. Also, if an object is concealed by my clothing, you can't see it even though I'm not wearing it."

"Have you got a fishnet?" asked Mina. When everyone stared at her, she said, "Have you ever heard that fairy tale where the girl is asked to come to the palace neither walking nor riding, neither clothed nor naked, at neither day nor night, and not on the road or off of it?"

"One leg on a donkey, wrapped in a fishnet, at twilight, and the other leg's in a ditch?" said Naoki.

After more experiments, they found that capes and cloaks vanished as soon as buckled or fastened or tied (they tried with blankets), using objects that are not normally clothes as clothing (old pillowcases, rope, barrels, cardboard boxes) also vanished in the mirror, and sunglasses disappeared the moment they touched an ear. Daisuke offered his martial arts pads to test when they got back to the dorm. He said they were a lot like corsets.

Hammer then asked Julius if garlic really did ward off vampires, and Julius told him that was ridiculous. Hammer tried it anyways, and Soma really was repulsed, to everyone's surprise.

"Arikado did say that there were many different types of vampires," called Soma from the next room. "This strain also feels nothing like when I was turning into one back in Castlevania."

Julius laughed nervously. "Kind of embarrassing for the world's strongest vampire hunter to not know garlic worked sometimes."

"But if it's rare enough for it to work, why take a risk?" said Mina. "You have the Vampire Killer. You probably don't need much else."

"I guess I haven't fought enough vampires in kitchens," said Julius.

Mina looked up the weather forecast. "It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so you should be fine," she said. "How bad is your sunlight aversion? No direct sunlight, or clouds and fog help?"

"I can go out if it's cloudy, and shade protects me," said Soma. "I never thought I'd be looking forward to school, but it's that or staying in my room all day."

Daisuke gave a sympathetic nod. "Lying in a hospital bed is always a pain."

"Hey, this may seem out of nowhere, but I want to ask you this before I forget," said Kazuya. "You said that Dracula's castle was sealed inside an eclipse in 1999, right? And you went there during an eclipse. Then why haven't there been any other breakouts?"

"What do you mean?" asked Mina.

"Why was Dracula's return prophesized on that eclipse and not an earlier one?" said Kazuya. "If the castle was unsealed when there was a total solar eclipse like the one in 1999, then why hadn't it unsealed when there was an earlier eclipse?"

"What do you mean, an earlier one?" said Hammer. "Wasn't the one last year the first one of the 21st century?"

"It was?" said Kazuya. "Because I'm pretty sure that the first one was in 2001. I did a report on them in grade school. Solar eclipses aren't as rare as you might think."

"You're from an alternate dimension, so there're bound to be some differences," said Mina.

Naoki raised his hand. "I think it might be my fault."

Mina looked at him. "How could this possibly be your fault?"

Naoki fidgeted. "Remember how I said that I reset the universe with Ms. Takao in high school?"

"Yeah, and I still don't really get it," said Hammer.

"Well… the basic thing is that we wanted to make the world as it was before," said Naoki. "But we got some stuff wrong, due to a combination of a desire to help, simple ignorance, and a lack of communication and unity on our part. The first weird thing was the day everything happened was after graduation and exams, probably because I wanted to be done with school and Ms. Takao wanted a clean start (I got very good grades on my exams, too). And it turned out that the leap years were changed (I noticed because my uncle was born on February 29th). I wouldn't be surprised if we messed up several astrological events in the process."

"You see?" said Daisuke. "This is the world we live in. Nothing I come up with can compare to that."

Mina looked very thoughtful. "Kazuya, Naoki, do you remember when the solar eclipses in your timeline were?"

"I don't," said Kazuya. "How could I possibly remember so many random dates?"

"Do you remember reading about any that were going to be visible from Japan?" asked Mina.

"Yes, there was one," said Naoki. "I remember seeing one once. I was… thirteen? My aunt said that it was an annular (basically a total eclipse, except with a bigger ring of light around the moon), and that she'd never seen a total or an annular since 1999, just some partials. And I did see the eclipse in 2035. I can't say that that's it, but that's all I know about. Why do you ask?" [1]

"My mother told me that the seals that we make can only be unsealed if there is another eclipse," said Mina. "But it's not enough for there to be another eclipse. The eclipse has to occur on the location of the seal."

"But your family sealed it in Romania," said Julius. "I distinctly remember that."

"We moved the physical part of the seal back to Japan," said Mina. "I won't bore you with the details, but sealing magic is complicated. If you open a gate, you need to make a seal. If you want to make a doorway into another world, you need to make a door. You can't make an empty hole; you need to move the fabric of reality somewhere else."

Everyone looked at each other. "Is it like those spy movies where the spies use this tool that cuts circles into glass?" asked Soma. "If you want to make a hole, you need to take out the glass. If you want to open a gate, you cut open a hole in reality and to do that you need to take out the glass. You can't just punch a hole into reality; you need to move the glass. The fabric of reality can't be destroyed, just… moved."

"Pretty much," said Mina. "You said you found the seals to Celia's gates? She had to make seals to make the gates. And seals can't just be made out of raw magic power. They need an actual physical form to work. My mother told me that seals need physical forms because we need to be able to operate the seal with our physical bodies. My father told that it is because we need something of our world to anchor against other things."

"Your point being?" said Kazuya.

"When my family sealed Castlevania into the eclipse, we needed to make a physical seal," said Mina. "What they did was make a gate to the eclipse, have everyone else shove the castle through, and then plug up the hole. Then we moved the physical part of the seal to Japan, where it was undone by the solar eclipse."

"Then why did you put it there?" asked Daisuke. "Wouldn't it have made more sense to just stick underground, where it couldn't be undone? Or get an almanac and just move the seal around everywhere so it never comes undone?"

"The unsealing wasn't an accident," said Soma. "It was specifically unsealed so that Dracula's power could be destroyed for good. It worked… kind of."

"And that's all we're going to say about that," said Julius. "I know we try to tell each other everything, but this involves people whose privacy I want to respect."

"Wait!" said Hammer. "I need to ask you something. I understand how you came to the shrine, Julius, because you came specifically to go to the castle. Same with Yoko and Arikado. And Soma, the plan required you to be there. Mina, you were already in the shrine. But why did you guys let civilians in danger by unsealing the castle right then and there?"

"Hammer, the first thing I should say is that I wasn't a part of the operation officially," said Julius. "I had no part in making the plan. I was just sent a letter by owl that told me to go to the shrine. But when I went over it with Arikado afterwards, he said that he had no idea how you got in. The shrine was supposed to be blocked off. Arikado and Yoko spoke with the caretaker beforehand, Graham and I snuck in, Mina was already there, and she called Soma there. How did you get in?"

"I was ordered to investigate by the US army," said Hammer. "I don't know why they suddenly took an interest in it. So I figured that I could ignore the NO ENTRY signs and just go in. So I almost messed up your operation."

"I guess that by violating a NO ENTRY sign, you kind of deserve what's coming to you," said Daisuke. "Even if the consequences are being sucked into a medieval castle instead of being hit by a car."

Kazuya's face clouded. "Why would the US army take an interest in a shrine? Why this one?"

"You think it's the Japan extermination project?" said Hammer in a hushed tone.

"It seems like too much of a coincidence to ignore," said Kazuya. "What were your orders?"

"They told me to just investigate," said Hammer. "And bring my gun."

Soma suddenly looked at Mina very seriously. "Mina… did you ask me to go to the shrine on that day because you wanted to show me the eclipse, or did you do it because someone else told you to?"

Mina shook her head. "I had no idea that there was a plan at all, Soma. I asked you because… well, I wanted to see the eclipse with you, and the shrine was the best place."

"I believe you," said Soma, breaking the grand tradition of romance movies where the main couple always has a falling out that ends with them falling in love with each other once more. Which is just as well, because Mina was practically the only thing stopping him from being Dracula.

"I believe that you would have been called there anyways even if Mina hadn't called you there," said Julius.

"Back to the original question," said Kazuya. "So the castle can only be unsealed if the eclipse happens to be located where the seal is. Then why didn't the castle come back on the annular eclipse and not the total eclipse?"

"Who's to say that it didn't?" said Naoki. "I told you, the events of the old timeline were the same, but now the dates are all messed up. It could have happened on the 2030 eclipse and not the 2035 eclipse in the original timeline."

Kazuya accepted this. "I'd question further, but we don't have enough data."

Soma drank from Hammer that night, and then slept fitfully. He wondered if he could get a coffin.

X

The next day was a heavy downpour. The mood was just as bad.

"Did you hear? Professor Byron went missing," Soma overheard one of the other students.

"Yeah, she's been gone since Monday," said another. "Didn't come to class and everything."

"Did something happen?" Soma asked Kazuya when they came to class.

"Professor Byron went missing," he said. "She's the English Literature professor. There've been cops all over the place since yesterday."

"Did you know her?" asked Soma. "You look tense."

"It all started with a girl being killed in the park," said Kazuya. "That's the first thing I remember. My mother told me to be careful on my way to the arcade."

"Really?" said Naoki. "For me, it was a riot in the park."

The rest of class went as usual. Soma was never friendly with casual acquaintances, and they were always a bit scared of him for a reason that they could never pinpoint, so they didn't exactly notice the fangs when he spoke. Eye contact was rude, so no one noticed the red eyes.

He was not so lucky with people who weren't his classmates. It was lucky that the sun never came out, because it seemed as if Soma had 'TALK TO ME' painted on his back in large letters.

"Hey, you there!" shouted a woman right as he was going to lunch. At least, he would have been going to lunch if it weren't for the stupid vampirism. "You in the fluffy coat!"

"What?" said Soma. He really wasn't in the mood to be talking to people he didn't know. Especially reporters. Especially pairs of reporters. Especially pairs of reporters with cameras.

"You're a student here, right?" said the woman without the camera. "I'm Maya Amano, ace reporter. May I ask you a couple of questions about the missing teacher?"

"I don't know anything," said Soma too quickly.

"Oh, really?" said Ms. Amano, smiling but raising an eyebrow.

"I've been sick since Sunday," he said. "Flu. Really bad flu."

"First question," said Ms. Amano. "What did you have for dinner last night?"

"Um…" Soma's heart started pounding. Answering, 'the blood of a US Marine' [2] would be a pretty bad idea. Then again, not everyone could remember the last thing they ate off the top of their head, so pausing was safe. "Yakisoba."

"What was your relationship with the missing person?" asked Ms. Amano.

"I didn't know she existed until today," said Soma truthfully.

"How long does it take for you to screw in the average lightbulb?"

"Into what kind of socket?"

"Can you name the Foreign Minister of Japan?"

"Incorrectly."

Ms. Amano's partner was about to take a picture of Soma. Panicking, he stopped time and removed the battery before she could hit the button.

"All right, that's a wrap!" said Ms. Amano. "Come on, Yukino, let's go!"

"What a weird person," said Soma, who was not one to talk. He thought that he was done with reporters, but he was wrong.

After his afternoon classes, a guy with long hair and a nice hat singled him out of the crowd. "Hey, you there," the guy said. "Mind if I talk to you?"

Soma decided that refusing would just make him question him more. Besides, a shady guy like this was probably somehow related to Dracula. Running now would probably screw him over later. "All right. Is it about the missing professor?"

The guy nodded. "The name's Hijiri. I'm a reporter for Ayakashi Monthly. Have you ever read it?"

Naoki had a subscription for it, and Soma read it whenever he was done. "I have," he said. "So what is it this time? You think she was kidnapped by elves?"

Mr. Hijiri shook his head. "There've been rumors among the occult groups that she's been thrown into a television. Don't look at me like that. You have to take everything they say with a grain of salt. They talk about things like ghosts hanging around in apartment buildings, someone killing Bigfoot in Russia, secret military operations to fight demons in Antarctica, hidden monster hunter villages in Romania, flying cities, shop owners selling guns, giant metal golems, Count Dracula returning, end of the world stuff… you know, things like that. Every once in a while, they turn out to be true. But you never know just by hearing them. There are things in this world that are too absurd to be made up."

"So what did you want to ask me?" said Soma. _There's no way he could have noticed me flinch_.

"Well, do you know the professor?"

Soma shook his head. "I've always been terrible at English."

"Did you notice anything strange around here?"

I was turned into a vampire the other night, attended a lecture on sealing magic, and my demon roommate admitted to changing the fabric of reality. "Not really," said Soma.

Talking to Mr. Hijiri was like talking to Arikado, except Mr. Hijiri actually showed emotion. Every lie that passed through Soma's lips invited another smile and nod from Mr. Hijiri, as if to say, "I know you're lying, but I'm not going to call you out on it. Aren't you glad?"

"Do you suspect anyone or anything?" asked Mr. Hijiri finally.

"I don't know anything," said Soma. "The butler?"

"All right then," said Mr. Hijiri, slightly disappointed. "Looks like I'll have to ask the cops."

The third reporter who Soma encountered was a short woman dressed like a nurse. She tried to call him over after describing him as a 'cute but scary' student, but was having none of it. He turned, ran, and—

Turned into a cat. "Looks like I found the switch," Soma said to himself in cat language. Soma later found out that like the bat, the cat was a cute white one, but he couldn't see past his legs. He wondered why he could see in color, and figured that it was just a vampire thing.

Without really anywhere to go, Soma decided to enjoy the perks of being a cat. He was much more agile, and he didn't have to lug around his stuff. Smelling and hearing things was incredible; the night vision he already had from being a vampire. Bats were much more noticeable than cats even if they could fly, so Soma could interact with people without having to talk to them.

While he was climbing a bench, one of the off duty cops knelt down next to him and sneezed. Soma looked at the cop. "Here, kitty kitty," said the cop. When the cop moved his hand to pet Soma, Soma moved his head a bit closer. If cats liked to be petted, then the hand would—

Burn like the sun. Soma jumped back and hissed, glad that the pain didn't turn him back into a human. The cop just looked at him in confusion. Clearly, he did not intend for that to happen.

Then Mr. Hijiri turned up. "So you're a cop? Do I know you? You look really familiar. Can I interview you?"

Soma took that as his chance to get away. He turned into a human again later. Little did he know that it was not the last time he would encounter people strongly affiliated with the sun.

X

When Soma got back to the dorm, he was surprised to see Leon there. "Hello," Soma said uncertainly. He liked Leon, but having him think that he was an inhuman monster really threw off their relationship.

To his surprise, Leon's expression was much softer than yesterday's. He coughed. "Adrian said that you haven't changed since your transformation," said Leon, more gently than Soma would have thought. "I don't hate vampires. Er… I don't have vampires just for being vampires, that is. I hate specific people, not all of them. When I was alive, I tried to kill vampires that killed or threatened to kill innocent people. Tried, that is. I made lots of mistakes." He cleared his nonexistent throat. "What I want to say is: I'm sorry about how I treated you yesterday. I don't hate you now that you're a vampire. It's just that I was afraid that you would have given in to your bloodlust and started attacking innocent people. I've seen it too many times, even to people I knew and loved."

Soma nodded. It was much more comforting to see Leon like this. "I wonder why it hasn't happened to me?" he said. "Why haven't I gone insane?"

Leon shrugged. "How do you feel?"

"Not terrible," said Soma. "I'm sleepy, my bones hurt, I feel gloomy, and I've been sweating a lot. Besides that, not bad."

"I mean, how do you feel in terms of bloodthirst?" asked Leon.

"I'm not thirsty right now," said Soma.

"How did you feel when you were thirsty?" asked Leon. "How did you drink from your friends?"

"Pretty bad," said Soma. "I was tired and I couldn't move well. I just took as much as I had too. Oh, and I had to throw up all the food I ate after I fully transformed, so I was really thirsty and upset."

Leon nodded, looking relieved. "Most of the vampires that I've encountered go berserk when they're thirsty and prey wanders near them. If you didn't attempt to kill them when you were thirsty, that's a good sign."

Soma frowned and nodded. "But why hasn't that happened to me? Saying that it's because I have a stronger will than the others just insults their memory."

"When you were thirsty, how strong was your urge to feed?" asked Leon. "Was it like normal hunger, or was it like every nerve was screaming at you for blood and death? That's what I've heard it's like."

Soma shook his head. "Just thirst. Nothing special."

"Then it probably doesn't have anything to do with will," said Leon. "I'd say that you have a strong will from the way you resisted the temptation of power, but that's not it. My best guess is that it's the same reason why you can manage all those souls without going insane."

Soma thought about this. "Arikado said that I had a strong soul. How is that related to not feeling hunger?"

"Perhaps it's because your soul thinks of the vampirism as another soul to ignore," said Leon. "Or it's because you're already technically a vampire just by having Mathias's soul. If your soul can ignore that, it can ignore anything. It might also be because you're drawing on the power of the Crimson Stone, which is powered by the souls of vampires. It might be sapping the power of the strain of vampirism inside your body."

"You really have no idea, do you," said Soma.

Leon shrugged. "I've wrote books about vampires, but you're the first non-vampire reincarnation of a vampire lord that became a vampire through a magic rock and also devours souls that I know. Anyways, how much do you know about Adrian?"

"What do you mean by, how much?" asked Soma.

"You said a while back that when you had Mathias's memories, you knew everything about Adrian," said Leon. "How much, exactly?"

"I can't tell if I don't know something, but when I saw Arikado (I call him that because that's what he wants to be called), I saw what I'm pretty sure was Dracula's entire record of him," said Soma. "I know his real name is Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, his mother was Lisa, he either likes playing Cyndaquil in Mystery Dungeon or he's actually the timid type…"

Soma told Leon what he knew about Alucard, which included his childhood, how Dracula still loved him, and how they fell out. "How do you know him, anyways?" asked Soma.

Leon sat down on the other bed. "After Trevor first killed Mathias, no one imagined that he would come back. Adrian was distraught over killing his father, and left before Trevor and the others could return. But when Trevor returned home with Sypha, he told everyone about his journey, including Adrian's role in it. After Trevor said that he was Dracula's son, I felt responsible. Even if our relationship ended in bitterness, we were still best friends. So I sought Adrian out, and found him in a crypt."

Soma realized that even though he'd known that Arikado was a vampire for a while, it was still hard to imagine him sleeping in a coffin. The part of him that remembered him as Alucard had all these memories of him sleeping in a coffin, but it was hard to imagine Arikado in his suit inside those same coffins.

"I woke him up, and we spoke for a while," Leon continued. "We talked about how we were both close to Mathias, and even though he turned to the dark, he was still my friend and his father. We were sad that he was gone. Yes, I know that I am a ghost, and that does change one's perspective on death, but I didn't see his soul lurking about. He left to sleep, and I continued watching over my family. After he woke up and killed his father again, I spoke with him for a bit. He was much happier then, even if he didn't admit it. Was actually going to start enjoying his life. That was the last time I saw him. Adrian calls me Uncle Leon, by the way. Virtue of being his father's friend."

Soma found that even harder to believe. "It's very hard to imagine Arikado calling someone 'uncle,'" he said. "But you still miss Dracula?"

Leon nodded. "It's complicated. It always was. I miss the man he used to be, and that always was inside of him. Now… I don't want him back, but I still miss him."

There was a pause. "So… do you think that you can still possess my body now that I'm a vampire?" said Soma quickly?

It turned out that Leon couldn't. Soma could still use all his souls like normal, but now that his body was weak to holy magic and not just his soul, his body couldn't take Leon's light magic. Both Soma's body and Leon's soul rejected each other, so they had to abort. "Do you think that other ghosts could possess my body?" asked Soma.

"Do you know any?" asked Leon.

Soma didn't.

X

The next day was another hard day for Soma. He found it hard to get up when everything in his body told him that he should be sleeping during the day. It was storming outside, so it was most likely safe to go to class. He thought that going through the day tired and thirsty would be the worst part. He was wrong.

First, Tatsuya tried to help him pick up his stuff when he dropped it. Touching Tatsuya was like touching the cop, except much worse. It felt as if his whole body was thrown into the sun. The way Tatsuya looked at Soma when he flinched unnerved Soma. It seemed as if Tatsuya was looking directly into his soul, and didn't like what he was seeing. Then Soma thanked him, and Tatsuya left.

The rest of the encounters with people whose touch hurt him were just annoyingly coincidental.

First, he bumped into a tiny girl with a trumpet and a really red face who said that she was looking for someone in his year. That narrowed it down to absolutely nothing, so she said that he had gray hair. Soma didn't have any idea who that was. So she left. It didn't burn that much, more like having a Merman spit a fireball in his face. And Soma knew how that felt.

Second, he bumped into another girl who said that she was looking for a guy with gray hair or a guy with brown hair and headphones. The second guy was not Kazuya. It was pretty distracting talking to her when being near her was like standing on top of a Bone Pillar when it was spitting out fire. And when she slapped him for making a comment that did sound pretty bad in hindsight, it burned like the sun. And then she doubled over in laughter.

The third time was when Naoki, Daisuke, Kazuya, and Mina realized that since Soma didn't show up on film, they could cast him as a ghost and make a movie. They would act everything out with Soma in plain sight, but they would pretend that they couldn't see Soma. The result would be free special effects; they'd have levitation and other stuff.

Unfortunately, a member of the drama club kicked them out. She grabbed Soma by the wrist, and it felt like Merman fire again.

That was the last of the encounters with weird burning stuff, but the day was far from over.

When Soma took a bath, he found the guy with gray hair, and probably the guy with brown hair. They were in the same bath as he was.

"I-it's the ghost!" the guy with brown hair hissed to his gray haired friend. "He came out of the mirror to seek revenge! That's why he doesn't have a reflection!"

"I thought we established that I didn't want vengeance," said Soma.

"I thought we did," said the gray haired guy, not changing his expression at all.

Soma thought that it was rare to see young people with gray hair, the same way Soma was the only person he knew who had white hair. "Do you know a short girl, really red cheeks and big eyes, carries a trumpet? She was looking for you."

"She was looking for him?" said the brown haired guy.

"I think I might know her," said the gray haired guy.

"Do you also know a girl with black hair-"

"Are you kidding me?" interrupted the brunette. "This is Japan."

"Who was looking for a guy with gray hair and a guy with brown hair and headphones?" finished Soma.

The two looked at each other. "Couldn't she have just called?" said the brown haired guy. "She has our numbers."

Soma decided to freak out the two by stopping time and getting out of the tub before they noticed. The brown haired guy freaked out appropriately. Nothing fazed the gray haired guy.

The other bad part of the day was at night. Despite staying up all day, Soma didn't feel tired at night. So he took to wandering the night skies, this time being more careful than before.

"I know you're following me," said Soma on one rooftop.

A girl Soma vaguely recognized appeared from thin air. She was dressed very oddly, and this was coming from a guy who wore fluffy coats and hung out with two patriarchs of a clan of longcoat wearing hunters. She wore a frilly red minidress, very nice long boots, a cape, a cute beret, and lots of ribbons that Soma wondered got in the way. "You're pretty good," she said, making a flaming lance appear from nowhere.

Soma blinked. "Before we go anywhere with the giant spear, could I get a general idea of why you want to kill me? And don't say that I know, because I don't."

The girl turned red. "How could you not know!?"

"Let's assume that I've done lots of horrible things to many people and I can't tell which crime you're talking about," said Soma.

The girl just glared. "Who do you think you are, toying with an innocent girl's feelings?"

Soma just gaped. "I don't even know you. Are you my stalker in disguise?"

"Mina Hakuba," said the girl. "You know her, right? Or is she just a thing to exploit to a monster like you?"

"A—what—Mina's just a friend!" said Soma hotly. Then he realized what the girl was saying. "Why would you think that I'm exploiting her?! We're not even dating!"

"You're trying to get close to her so that you can use her as a hostage, vampire!" said the girl. "You know how close Mina and I are, so you're planning on using her to get to me!"

"But I don't even know who you are!" protested Soma.

The girl tried to run him through with the flaming lance, but Soma dodged. "Humor me," he said. "I honestly don't know who you are. I was turned into a vampire just this Sunday."

"How many people have you drank from?" asked the girl warily.

"Three," said Soma. When he realized how bad that sounded, he quickly added, "They're still alive! I can give you their numbers. They can vouch for me!"

The girl lowered her lance. "Fine. Give me their numbers."

Soma told her. "But tell them that Soma Cruz wants them to tell you," he said. "Don't take their reluctance to admit right away that a vampire drank from them as proof that I'm lying."

The girl called Kazuya, Naoki, and Hammer, who all told her that Soma did drink from them, that he was turned on Sunday, and to shut up and let them sleep. "All right, your story checks out," she said.

Soma let out a sigh of relief.

"But I'm not going to just take that," said the girl, dialing on her phone. "I'm going to ask Mina!"

Soma only heard half of the conversation, but he understood it pretty well. The girl asked Mina if she knew that Soma was a vampire, and Mina said yes. And she knew Soma for years. And Soma really was just turned on Sunday. The girl nodded with a red face, and hung up. "So… yeah. I guess you are innocent in all this."

"I believe that you owe me an explanation," said Soma, arms crossed. "Maybe an apology. And for trying to set me on fire, treat me to ice cre… I can't eat anything right now. Damnit."

The girl put her lance away, and there was a flash of light. Her clothes were changed to more normal street clothes, with no ribbons or frills anywhere. "My name is Chihiro Makimura," she said.

"And?" said Soma, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry about trying to kill you. And… I thought you knew, but I'm Mina's roommate."

"I'm guessing you're the one she thought was a superhero," said Soma.

"She really thought that?" said Chihiro. "Guess I wasn't hiding it well enough."

"She said that you came in injured all the time and never had the same story twice," said Soma. "In retrospect, I should have thought that you were an abuse victim. Should have called the cops."

"I'm one of four girls who fight supernatural threats with magic. We worked for this group that told us where the monsters were so that we could track them down and kill them, but we kind of faded out when school became an issue. I got a tip that there was a vampire somewhere in the city, and they said that since I was already there, I could just kill it and take the bounty. And when I found out that you were a vampire from your fangs, and you've been going out with my roommate, I figured that it was another plot to hold one of my friends hostage so you could kill me. I thought that my fame had preceded me yet again, and you wanted revenge for killing your comrades."

"I really don't blame you," said Soma, who had almost drenched the world in hellfire because a fake Mina was killed. "But when did this order come out?"

"Last Friday," said Chihiro. "So it couldn't have been you. Who turned you?"

"A vampire who called herself Ruth," said Soma. "Don't worry, I killed her."

"Ruth?" said Chihiro. "As in, Ruth Byron? The English professor?"

"That was her?" said Soma. "What did she look like?"

Chihiro's description matched up with Soma's memory. "I guess you stole my kill," said Chihiro. "That's 50,000 yen down the drain."

"How do you confirm a kill?" asked Soma.

"They poke around in your memory," said Chihiro.

"Never mind, then," said Soma. "I don't want anyone in my head."

Chihiro then glared at Soma. "Wait a second. They couldn't have sent me on an assignment where someone could kill a vampire that easily. Who are you?"

Soma sighed and explained that he had superpowers, not telling her that he was Dracula or that his powers came from enslaving souls. An explanation that covered the basics only bought an incomplete explanation, especially when the former was given as an apology.

"We have a support group," said Soma. "And trust me, you're not alone. Or the weirdest person there. Ask Mina if you're interested."

"I'll come if I have the time," said Chihiro. "This is annoyingly anticlimactic."

Chihiro joined in the end, and persuaded her friends to join as well. She explained to the organization that Soma Cruz had gotten lucky in killing the vampire before she could, and omitted the fact that he was turned. Since there were no more murders that could be attributed to vampires, they sent Soma the 50,000 yen.

For some time, other organization members hatched schemes with vampires to start attacks and then suddenly end them, telling the organization that a bystander got lucky, and pocketing the money until the organization closed that loophole.

X

The rest of the time until Yoko's purification was spent more peacefully. The sun was out for the rest of the week (sporadically, but a little bit was all it took), so Soma just spent the days in his room and the nights wandering or reading the notes that his roommates gave him. It was no longer boring because by then he had adapted to the sleep cycle. He didn't miss anything during the day, and he was completely free in the long hours of the winter nights.

During the evenings, Soma and his roommates continued experimenting. They learned that this strain of vampirism did not have mind control powers, and Soma didn't dare try to turn someone else into a vampire. Attempting to see if Soma could drown was impossible, because running water could kill him if the Rahab soul was off, and he couldn't drown anyways with the Rahab soul on. He still had to breathe, too.

Then when Yoko came about a week later, she pulled off the spell without a hitch.

Then Soma threw up all the blood that he didn't digest, and had to stay in bed for another day to adjust to his original sleep cycle. He was still happy to have his life back.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] The whole thing with the alternate timeline: More explaining stuff. It is getting really silly now. There will be an annular eclipse in Japan in 2030, and a few partial ones that wouldn't be strong enough to break the seal.

Because no one in the story has any way of confirming this (except for someone who hasn't appeared yet), I'll put it here. The events of the original timeline (not the one the story takes place in) inside Castlevania occurred exactly as they did in the game. It was in 2035 and everything. But all other eclipses were erased from the timeline.

[2] Hammer is a Marine: Just to make the Grant comparisons better, Hammer is now a former Marine.

Optics and Mirrors in physics was a pretty hard subject for me. There's just so much to know.

Soma as a vampire is suffering from Vitamin D deprivation, in addition to sleep problems.

The people who burned Soma are all SMT characters and are related to the sun. I would have made you guess, but this fic is a Castlevania fic. The first is Katsuya Suou of Persona 2, who has the Persona Hyperion. It's Justice Arcana, but Hyperion is the sun titan. It hurt Soma pretty badly to touch him. Tatsuya is his brother, who has the Persona Apollo of the Sun Arcana. He hurt Soma the most because not only is it a combination of the Sun God and Sun Arcana, but he's stronger than Katsuya. The third and fifth are the two Sun Social Links of Persona 4, Ayane and Yumi. They're not Persona users and don't have any powers, so they don't hurt Soma as much. The fourth is Yukiko of Persona 4, who has Amaterasu of the Priestess Arcana. Like Katsuya's Hyperion, Yukiko's Persona is associated with the sun, but doesn't have the Sun Arcana, so it doesn't hurt as much as Tatsuya's Apollo.

Instead, guess where I got the name of the vampire who turned Soma, Ruth Byron.


	17. Chapter 17: Balor

Soma didn't really fight back against Chihiro even though he fought against Daisuke because as far as he could tell, Chihiro would die if he launched giant fireballs or stab her in the chest. Daisuke was encased in a giant metal robot, while Chihiro didn't seem to have any form of protection. It's much harder to fight against a human opponent you don't know about who could still probably be talked out of it. Soma could disable Daisuke's fighting ability by destroying the robot, and Julius knew exactly that Soma was Dracula and didn't seem to be able to be talked out.

The name of this chapter is Balor, because I'm used to the SMT spelling. Sorry, the Yeti soul will be put on hold.

Ruth Byron came from the story The Vampyre. The titular vampyre is named Lord Ruthven, and he was apparently based off of Lord Byron, the author's boss.

I made the Power of Dominance be a sort of willing thing because I wanted to have a balance between 'it's dark magic; it shouldn't be completely willing' and 'why can't he do it with every monster'.

Yup, this really is a very American college for something in Japan. I feel like I could do all this research and I'll always get something wrong.

As a warning, I won't have as much time to write from here on. I'll still be doing this fic, but I won't update as often. Then again, I've probably spoiled you all from updating so often.

I will include more Castlevania. The problem is that… well, SMT has multiverse, and Castlevania takes place mostly in the past before this time. Soma's the main character, so unless I open the can of worms that is time travel and necromancy, I can't include most Castlevania protagonists.

Balor

The Balor soul was one of many that had multiple uses. Not only did it give Soma super punches, it also gave him the power to break ice without being near it. The former was pretty much useless in real life, unless Soma wanted to destroy a punching bag or win prizes with a punch machine. The latter was great for party tricks and pranks. It even helped him during the one time when he was kidnapped for reasons other than because of Dracula.

All of the souls also gave Soma the power to summon the monster, but he rarely did that after he accidentally let a Succubus loose in the park one day. He only summoned bats, cats, and other small creatures with little to no intelligence or inclination to run off on their own. If he had to summon a monster with a strong will, he kept them on a tight leash.

Whenever it snowed on campus, it came down heavily. Soma's dorm had a rivalry with its neighbor, and when Soma got up early one morning, he found that all the entrances were blocked up with snow. Lots of snow. Even the first floor (or ground floor) windows were covered. From the higher floors, it was clear that someone had intentionally dumped the snow on their doorsteps; they could see the tracks and tunnels that the culprits had left. They clearly came from the rival dorm, and then dispersed into the rest of campus. The rest of the snow was a much more manageable three feet.

The sane and normal thing to do would be to get a shovel. But the doors didn't budge. Another sane option would be to call the fire department or something, because a building that didn't let people out was a death trap. The less sane option would be to break down a door with an axe; it wasn't as if they couldn't just install a new door after telling the building manager that they could have died in there. The insane option would be to throw someone out the second floor (or the first floor, depending on which English you use) window and bribe him (it had to be a guy; this was an all boy's dormitory) to shovel out an entrance. Soma would pick Naoki, mostly because he once bragged about how he jumped from a skyscraper and lived. Besides, the snow would break his fall.

Soma was having none of that, and broke apart the snow and ice of one door with the Balor soul, told the others that they had missed that one, and then had everyone shovel the rest. A few other residents already saw the snow that was piled up, and making it vanish would be really suspicious.

Then, when all of the doors and windows were cleared, the shovelers had a meeting. "We need to get back at them," said Daisuke. "Come on! There's plenty of snow, we can cover up their doors!" There was a murmur of agreement.

"No, we can't do that," said Tatsuya, his voice as even as ever but revealing his uncommon passion with volume. "You just can't block every exit in a building. If you just did one, that's a prank. But if preventing people from leaving a building isn't a crime, it should be."

Beside him, Jun and Eikichi nodded. "We need to prove that it was them," said Jun.

"But we can't just point a finger at an entire dorm and say they did it," said Soma.

"In that case, we can either find the culprits, or just take indiscriminate revenge," said Kazuya.

There was a long pause. Everyone looked at each other without saying a word, and they all understood.

"We should do something else with the snow," said Jun. "Like… Dump it all on their carpets. Or fill up their elevator. No, that might leak and destroy their electrical systems. And we don't want that."

"Shove it all in their refrigerators?" said Naoki.

"Ooh!" said Ryouta, Daisuke's other roommate. "Fill their toilets with snow!"

Eventually, the shovelers dragged their lazier roommates into sneaking into the other dorm in balaclavas and dumping snow all over their common room.

When Soma got to class that afternoon (they had cancelled morning classes), he saw his professor talking to someone on the phone anxiously. She looked as if she was going to have a heart attack. When she saw Soma come in with Eikichi, she did a double take, and then yelled at the person on the line in a language that no one knew. No one knew what she told the other person, but she hung up in disgust and then lectured as usual.

Little did anyone know that Soma had unwittingly dismantled a terrorist operation that involved blackmailing the former spy Professor Shinamura into giving them the prototype for a death machine. If she did not comply, the terrorist group would kill everyone in one of the dorms by blocking the entrances and setting the place on fire, making it look like an accident. The fire itself was meant to start small and without using very much gasoline or oil; the real danger was in the fact that no one could leave. By destroying the super cold, super thick, and super hard ice, Soma had allowed people to enter and exit the building. When the fire started, it was quickly extinguished by two people who could not be hurt by fire in any capacity: Tatsuya and Naoki. The terrorists had heard the story of the witch who asked the young man what he would take out of the house when it was on fire, but they did not think that anyone could actually remove the fire from the house.

X

The next few days were snowy, cold, and icy. Soma wasn't really bothered by the snow, since the Balor soul not only broke apart snow and ice, it also shoved it out of his way when he used it. If the Balor soul just broke the ice, then Soma would have to wade through tons of ice. And since he often broke the ice in places directly above him, it would result in massive head trauma.

Soma sometimes amused himself by blowing up the ice cream cones of people who really annoyed him, since there was no possible way that they could tell it was him. "You should find a better hobby," said Mina when they were on a not-date.

"Come on, they're jerks," said Soma.

"Who are you to judge?" said Mina. "I know you have the power to give people comeuppance when they're rude to you, but that doesn't mean that you should abuse it."

Soma nodded. "All right then, I'll stop. Is this the point where you ask me questions about the soul that I never would have thought of?"

"I believe so, yes," said Mina. "How much ice does there have to be in the-"

"I can blow up any ice that's in range; it blows up more when there's more ice in the thing," said Soma. "It doesn't matter what percentage of ice is in the thing, as long as it contains it. Percentage doesn't matter; volume does. Oh, and I can't break something that's too small."

Mina nodded. "Does dry ice break?"

"No, just regular ice," said Soma. "It appears to be limited to just frozen water, which includes snow and ice. But it it's something like ice cream, which is not entirely made out of ice, the rest of the ice cream blows up anyways because the ice crashes into it on its way out."

"What is the range?" asked Mina.

"As long as I know it's there, I can break it," said Soma. "If I can see it, even from very far away, I can give it a push. If I can't see it, but I know it's there, I can blow it up."

"Have you tried breaking ice inside of things?" asked Mina. "Have you put ice in a bottle and then blew it up?"

"You know me," said Soma. "The bottle exploded. It was metal, even. I feel like this power could be very easily abused to get infinite energy if we knew how to make a generator."

"I think that you could use any soul to make infinite energy, especially with the Chaos Ring," said Mina. She took a bite of sandwich. "It is kind of disappointing that we can't have a lot of crazy experiments now that you already answered all the questions I have."

"We could try the Legion soul," said Soma, trying to spend more time with his not-girlfriend. "It makes three tentacles shoot lasers."

"Fascinating," said Mina sincerely. "Are they prehensile? What's it like having three extra limbs? Can you make them shoot in different directions, or are they fixed?"

X

Soma had lived with the idea that he was Dracula for so long that he sometimes forgot that other things could hurt him. Since his first brush with the supernatural, Soma had classified the world into 'Safe and Mundane,' 'Supernatural and Safe,' and 'Supernatural and Unsafe.' Soma's initial encounter with Daisuke had given Soma a metaphorical small folder on top of the filing cabinet, labeled 'Non-Supernatural and Unsafe.' Otherwise, Soma decided that the rest of the world didn't hold much terror for him. There was the fear of losing his family, of course, fear of dying (meeting Leon honestly didn't help), fear of living alone, and lots of other everyday fears.

But it was hard to be afraid of starving when one had the power to make curry and money appear from nothing, hard to be afraid of missing deadlines when one can stop time, hard to be afraid of falling when one could turn into a bat, and it was pretty hard to fear muggers when one faced giant demons made from human corpses. The supernatural fear of being found out occupied that space.

So when Soma was kidnapped for non Dracula related reasons, he found it an incredibly strange experience. Not too harmless to call scary, and not too terrifying to call boring.

Soma was walking to the bathroom in his dorm late one night during his time as a vampire when someone stabbed him in the back and shoved a chloroform rag in his face. From his previous experiences, Soma held his breath and elbowed his attacker. His elbow met empty air, and his attacker forced him into some kind of submission hold (Soma did not know much about wrestling). While he was struggling to free himself, Soma was forced to take in a breath and passed out.

He woke up in a tiny cage, bound and gagged. Wires dug into his body whenever he tried to move. Soma tried to look around, but the wires were too tight. He gave up and used the Ghost soul to look around properly.

Soma was inside a small, windowless room with concrete walls, ceiling, and floor. The light fixture was a harsh greenish light that barely lit the room. There was a leak from above, leaving dark streaks of mold and moss on the walls. Soma couldn't feel the cold in his bodiless state, but there was ice forming on the walls. There was a folding chair near the door, and nothing else. The cage wasn't much bigger than he was, and the bars on the wire cage were too close together for him to crawl out even in bat form.

Soma had only a limited range from his body, but it was larger than the room, so he could phase through the walls. The hallway was equally concrete, damp, and dark. There was a metal staircase at the end of the hall, and the other end had some electrical equipment and a shopping cart full of marshmallows. The ceiling was a maze of pipes and wires. Soma checked above, below, and behind, but he just saw earth. The room to Soma's left (facing the door) was empty, but the one to the right was interesting.

Inside that one, a girl was cleaning a table full of weapons. She was doing it much more efficiently than Kazuya, who had just learned how to clean a gun from Hammer. Soma noticed that her cache was very different from Kazuya's. Kazuya favored large, intimidating weapons that could be depended upon to decapitate an elephant, and preferred swords to guns. This girl's table had much smaller guns, meant for concealment. She had no swords, but lots of knives and other weapons meant to look like everyday objects. The knives were sharp and small guns were just as deadly in the hands of a professional, but Soma would not take his chances with them against most monsters. The chances were that this girl wasn't using them against monsters. These weapons were meant for humans.

Julius once told Soma that he never liked fighting other humans because he was afraid of killing them by accident. "You don't need that much power to kill a human," Julius had said. "At my level, I can kill someone with an ordinary piece of rope."

"Yeah, you can strangle them," Soma had said. He wasn't in a very good mood at the time. He was soaking wet from Julius's bathtub. Julius had given him a towel and a steaming hot mug of chocolate.

"You know what I mean," said Julius. "Before Juste killed his pony with the Vampire Killer, Simon severely injured a horse with an ordinary whip right after he bought her. He had to return her and give the owner a lot of money. The family let it slide because Simon didn't know how to ride at the time."

"I got a few horses killed in my time," Leon had said, but no one could hear him at the time. Soma hadn't discovered the power of the Ghost soul yet. Leon just wanted to pretend that he was a part of the conversation. "Comes with being a knight. I tried to keep them alive, but…"

"My point is, if you want to kill someone, you don't need a machine gun or a giant sword. A derringer or steak knife works just fine if you're good enough."

"If I wanted to kill someone, I'd mess with their house and make sure that no one could trace me," said Mina.

"You know what I mean," said Julius.

"Wait, you just said that you don't need a strong weapon to kill a human, and you also said that Juste killed his pony when he picked the Vampire Killer instead of a normal whip," said Mina.

"Juste was skilled with the whip, but he didn't have much physical power compared to the others," said Julius. "He spent too much time on magic, compared to everyone else who spent years on whip technique. You know what I mean."

"His magical power was incredible," said Leon in the way of grandmothers everywhere, covering up his descendant's flaws. "So what if he wasn't as strong as Simon? I love all of you."

"But what if they have heavy armor or if they're in a tank or something?" said Soma.

"Then that's why they invented the bigger guns and rocket launchers," said Mina.

"I mean that you don't need a huge or flashy explosive to kill most people who do not have protection, armor or otherwise," said Julius. "It doesn't matter how sharp the weapon or how big of a bang it makes, they're all lethal to humans."

Soma thought the girl in the room looked familiar, and after a few minutes of staring, he remembered her face. "Margarita Yamamoto," he said to himself, knowing that she couldn't hear him. "You're Mina's other roommate. After that fiasco with Chihiro, I wanted to investigate all the weird threads. I couldn't find anything about you, other than that you're from Portugal. No wonder Mina found your gun. I can't believe you can keep track of all of them. I guess that you're the one who kidnapped me."

Soma watched her work for a while, mostly because there was nothing to do. When he returned to the room he was dragged into, he just managed to come in right when a group of men in black suits and sunglasses entered. Most of them were to the tune of tough, bulky, and muscular, but after seeing Simon Belmont in his nightmares, very few people could compare. A woman with red hair was talking to someone in Spanish on a laptop she was carrying. "You don't believe me, Mr. Cruz?" she said coldly to the microphone. "Did you really think that we would ever make a threat that we couldn't carry out?"

The next words Soma heard chilled him to the bone. "Soma?" his father's voice, tinny and blurred from the bad connection, whistled out of the computer. "That's my son…" Soma's father choked and then started cursing loudly and frantically yelling at him to get up.

Soma returned to his body in a flash. "Dad!?" he shouted, not caring that the wires were digging into his body. "Dad, what the hell is going on?!" Soma vaguely felt that this wasn't the right thing to say; from the movies that he'd seen, the kidnapped child usually shouted for help. But as stupid as it may sound, Soma wanted answers more than he wanted help.

"Well, this is a first," said one of the men. "Most of them just scream and cry incoherently. The second most common is begging for their lives. These are adults, mind you. We don't usually go for small children."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," said Soma.

"Soma!" shouted Soma's father. "I—I thought you were-"

"Hate to cut this little reunion short, but now you know that we have your son," snapped the woman. "Give us the money, and he'll walk out of here with both ears and all of his fingers. And his organs."

Soma gaped. "You're the Portuguese mafia!"

Two of the men grinned. "Nice to know someone who gets that right. They all think we're just the mafia, or that we're the Italian mafia. Or the Spanish mafia. But your dad here thought a little thing like international borders could protect him, so he borrowed from the Portuguese mafia."

"Yes, and it was a real pain tracking you people down," said the woman. "But you haven't left your dorm for almost a week. No one would notice your disappearance. That was our chance."

"So you kidnapped me?" said Soma, incredulous. "Just so that Dad would pay his debts on time?" After being kidnapped by people who wanted to plunge the world into darkness and people who wanted to kill Dracula, that came across as a little… mundane.

"Well, if your dad doesn't pay up, then we'll sell your organs," said one of the men. "It won't pay off the whole debt, but the rest will be a manageable chunk."

Soma's father let out a nervous laugh. Even though Soma couldn't bring himself to be afraid of these people, he realized that his father was completely terrified. Soma didn't realize until now how his parents would react to… well, everything that happened to him since Castlevania. Those two worlds were separate. "I'll give you the money," said Soma's father, breathing hard. "I'll drop it off. Just tell me where. Just don't hurt my son!"

"Don't worry, Dad," said Soma, almost choking on tears. Seeing his father afraid was worse than talking to Mina while he was Dracula. "I'll be fine."

"I love you, Soma," said Soma's father, as if this was the last time they were going to meet.

"I love you too," said Soma dully. It was unreal, hearing something like this over a phone. Especially since there was no video.

The woman shut the laptop. "Now then, you're going to stay here until we get word from Spain that your father brought the money."

"Just out of curiosity, how much was it?" said Soma.

One of the men told him. Soma's jaw dropped. "How the hell did Dad get that much debt?!"

"Gambling," said one of the men.

"Plane tickets for escape," said another.

"Businesses fell through," said the woman.

Soma then said, "How do you expect him to pay it off?"

"That's his problem," said the woman. "Of course, you can sell your organs."

"You're all horrible people, you know that?" said Soma, biding his time, and trying not to think that to pay off the debt, his father might take life insurance or sell his own organs.

"Yes, it's hard to miss the murders," said the woman.

There was a pause. "By the way, Mom and Dad can't sell their kidneys," said Soma, forming an escape plan. "They already sold one each to pay off the Icelandic mafia."

"Too much information," said one of the men.

"You were just talking about selling mine," said Soma. After being a vampire and drinking the bodily fluids of others, and receiving Dracula's memories of impalement, the rotting corpses of friend and enemy in battlefields, and the lack of hygienic waste disposal in cities, Soma found it hard to be disgusted by much. Discount virgin blood was the exception.

At that moment, Soma struck. The ice on the walls was prime targets for the Balor soul, so he shattered it. That sounded useless, but to a group of mafia people, the sudden sound of ice breaking was like a gunshot. They all spun around to face the door, weapons drawn. Most of them had guns, but the woman had a nasty looking whip.

Suddenly, the world went dark. There was complete silence. Soma felt a chill in the air. He made fireballs appear in the air with the Buer soul, and saw that the three people in front of him were replaced with coffins. The damp floor was replaced with what looked like blood, but Soma could smell that it was just red water. There was no electricity.

"Hello, Soma, it's been a while," said a calm, slightly lethargic voice.

Soma tried to look up, but couldn't. He didn't have to, anyways. "I'm a bit tied up now, Minato," he said. "A little help here?"

"You can escape without my help," said Minato. "Everyone is frozen. If you run now, no one can catch you for one hour. No one will see. They'll think that something is up if you suddenly vanish, but it's better than getting caught. You don't have to worry about them finding out about your powers."

"True," said Soma. "They were looking away when the Dark Hour came. They won't suspect supernatural play. They'll just think that I hid and they keep missing me." Soma turned into a bat, and his restraints slipped right off. He turned back, and then used the Balor superpunch to break the bars. The door was already open. "Care to join me?" he asked Minato.

"Nothing else to do," said Minato, walking next to Soma. "This is the only time I can move around, you know." He gave Soma what should have been an intense look, if it weren't for the fact that he looked so tired. Minato was always tired whenever Soma saw him. If it weren't for his sleepy eyelids, Soma would rank his glare as just below Kazuya's. Taking the sleepiness into account, Minato's glare ranked lower than Julius's. It was still a pretty good glare, but it didn't make Soma quiver in fear or feel like his very soul was being read. Arikado's glare was in second because of that, but Leon's beat it out. Leon's glare had the intensity of age, knowledge, and experience, and the fact that his face was so familiar and normally friendly made it worse. Naoki was in third, because Soma could feel the sheer inhumanness radiating off of him, and it was just creepy when it came from someone who looked so human. Not to mention that the effect was even worse when Naoki's façade of cheer was erased. Kazuya took fourth, because he always looked as if he knew exactly what you were doing, and all your excuses melted in the face of that glare. Julius's had the look of someone who had seen the horrors of the world, and that you were nothing in comparison. Minato's was the same. "You've changed. Something is wrong with you."

"It's because I was turned into a vampire," said Soma, irritated. "I had a bad run in with one. It wasn't because of Dracula, so I don't feel his influence."

Minato nodded, looking at something else as if he wasn't interested in Soma's problem, but Soma knew that he was. "I don't smell any blood inside you," said Soma. "I guess you really are just a mind projection. I'm not going to drink from you. I'm not thirsty."

Minato nodded again apathetically.

Soma looked around. "Can you sense any Shadows?"

Minato shook his head. "I'm not a sensor, remember?"

"But your senses are better than mine," said Soma. "You have an actual Persona. I just use soul magic."

"I never thought that someone without a Persona could fight against Shadows," said Minato.

When the two of them climbed the stairs, the door was locked. Soma lit it on fire and kicked it in. "Security cameras don't work during the Dark Hour, right?" said Soma.

"Nothing electronic works at all," said Minato.

Soma shrugged. "Then again, I don't show up in cameras right now." He sighed. "I have to tell you, Minato, I was really freaking out the first time the Dark Hour came. Streets literally running red with blood, everyone turning into coffins, giant masked monsters trying to eat me, and my sword doing nothing… The worst part was that I had no idea what was going on, or if this was permanent. Good thing you were there."

"You're the one who fought them," said Minato. "I was trying to lead you to safety, but when you threw fireballs from your coat, I figured you had it covered. How long ago did we meet?"

"It's been… two years?" said Soma. "It was a few days after my run through Castlevania. Galamoth's soul allowed me to move even when time was stopped."

"Best theory we have," said Minato. "Not even other Persona users can enter this time. I asked for it to be like that."

"What exactly is this, again?" asked Soma as they emerged at ground level. The front appeared to be a bank. "I never got a chance to really ask. Every time it's happened, I've been freaking out, busy killing monsters, or just taking advantage of extra time to do more homework."

"It's the Dark Hour," said Minato, raiding all of the candy off of the receptionist's desk. "It's a magic hour between midnight and 12:01 that used to come every night until my friends stopped it. Shadows lurk on this hour. I told you that I sacrificed myself to become a seal against Erebus, right?"

"We got to that," said Soma.

"And as long as humanity has a will to die, Erebus will seek Nyx, and when they meet, it will be the end of the world," said Minato. "However, during the Dark Hour, humanity isn't conscious, so I can leave the seal. Ryoji—he's Nyx and also his own person, like how my Personas are also me. Or how you're Dracula."

"I'm Dracula, but I don't consider him to be me," said Soma firmly. "He considers me a part of him, but I don't consider myself a part of him."

"Yes, like that," said Minato. "You're clearly separate from him, but you're still him. Ryoji isn't Nyx's reincarnation like you are Dracula's, but the analogy is close enough. So Ryoji borrowed some of Nyx's power to make the Dark Hour again, so that I could rest. I said that I didn't want to put everyone in danger, but he told me that the Seal would weaken if my mind degenerated to the point where I couldn't think, so I agreed. I didn't want to do it too often, and I refused to put anyone through what I went through, so he locked everyone else out except for me. And you slipped in."

Soma nodded. Minato's emotions were harder to read than Kazuya's, but he knew that Minato was grateful for company.

"So why were you in that cage?" asked Minato.

"The Portuguese mafia kidnapped me to threaten my father into paying back his absurd amount of debt," said Soma.

Minato just nodded expressionlessly. "How are you going to settle this?" he asked.

"I'll run," said Soma.

"But can they find you again?" asked Minato. "Can they hurt your father again?"

Soma was silent. "You're not trying to improve my life by subtly emotionally manipulating me, are you?" he said. "Just like you did with everyone else in your life?"

"Answer the question," said Minato levelly.

"Can't this wait until I've had a good night's sleep and I'm not on more drugs than an Olympic athlete?" said Soma.

Minato nodded without a word. Then he said, "If you're drugged, then how can you walk?"

"I have a very good metabolism," said Soma. "And I built up a tolerance from all the other times I've been drugged. Dracula is very popular."

They walked out of the building and into the green glowing streets. It was snowed, but Soma just broke the ice and snow apart so he could walk instead of waste magic by flying (he only wore the Chaos Ring when he was fighting; he was afraid that any kidnappers would pawn it off). Besides, walking let him talk to Minato. "I have to say, this is the most anticlimactic escape I've ever done," said Soma. "Most of the time, the building collapses."

Minato looked straight at Soma. "Soma, I am very happy that I can see you," he said. "I didn't want to put anyone, my friends included, in danger by summoning them to the Dark Hour. But I need someone to talk to. If I am overbearing, that is normal."

Soma just nodded. He found Minato to be strange. Not strange as in he had strange powers; that was a dime a dozen in Soma's world. Given that Soma had Count Dracula's powers of soul devouring magic, his roommates were a demon and demon summoner, his friends contained witches, hunters, military men, mikos with sniper rifles, mecha pilots, and probably lots of other things that Soma didn't know about, he wasn't one to talk about Minato's power to kill things with his soul. But Soma found Minato's personality to be a bit… off. He was a good person and Soma liked him, but Soma found him to be less walking to a different beat and more like tripping up the band.

"When you are older, and you can legally buy alcohol, will you let me drink some of yours?" asked Minato in a monotone, rousing Soma out of his embarrassed stare. Soma didn't even notice that he was staring.

"Sure," said Soma. "I don't expect to be a lush in the near future. I can't drink off an entire bottle on my own."

Soma got back on campus when time resumed. Minato walked with him the whole way, before vanishing into thin air.

When Soma got back to the dorm, he found Kazuya, Tatsuya, and the cop from the other day sitting on Kazuya's bed and drinking tea and eating what looked like a really good cake. Soma gazed at it longingly, knowing that he couldn't eat a bite of it. "Hi," said Soma, collapsing on his bed. "I hate to break you up like this, but I just got back from being kidnapped. I need to sleep. How was your day?"

"Good," said Kazuya. "You know how since I'm from an alternate reality, none of my relatives are technically my relatives? Well, I found out that my not-cousin Tatsuya here is also not my cousin."

"He means to say that I'm from an alternate reality, too," said Tatsuya. "So, what was that about being kidnapped?"

"Well, it turns out that my father is up to his neck in debt (I guess he's planning on owing more money to put me through college), and the Portuguese mafia kidnapped me."

"What's the Portuguese mafia doing on Japan?" asked the cop suspiciously, taking out his notebook. "What do you know about them? Where were they?"

"I really can't get into this conversation right now," said Soma, collapsing onto the bed.

"This is important," insisted the cop. "We need to catch those who break the law, for the safety of-"

"I said, _I can't get into this conversation right now_ ," Soma intoned in the voice that Dracula reserved for minions that angered him. "Who are you, anyways?" he added in a more normal voice.

"This is Katsuya, my cousin from this reality, and Tatsuya from this reality's older brother," said Kazuya. "Please do not mix up our names. Their surname is Suou, too."

"Kazuya Suou and Katsuya Suou?" said Soma.

"Yes, don't mix them up," said Katsuya. "Our fathers got into a fight and refused to talk to each other for years. They made up when I was eleven and Kazuya here was three, and they couldn't change his name. One of my friends said that I should be called Big Suou and Tatsu should be called Little Suou. Kazuya would be Tiny Suou."

"I go by Other Tatsuya Suou (there's also an Other Tatsuya Sudou, so I can't just be Other Tatsuya), and Katsuya here goes by This Katsuya," said Tatsuya. "Jun Kurosu and Eikichi Mishina are both from my alternate reality, but you can call Eikichi Michelle like he asks you to, and Jun can still be called Kurosu because in the reality we're not from, he took his dad's name instead of his mom's. You haven't met Lisa Silverman, but she goes here, too. In this reality, she and Eikichi never got into the fight that led to him nicknaming her Ginko."

"How did you all get to the same college?" asked Kazuya.

"Connections," said Tatsuya. "We wanted everyone to be in the same place."

Soma nodded blearily, and then stuck his head under the covers. "I can't deal with this. Just when I thought I had this sleep cycle covered, I have to deal with this," he moaned. "Good night."

"Soma was turned into a vampire about a week ago," explained Kazuya. "He's not much different, except for the whole need to drink blood and skip classes. He can't eat the cake right now. And before you get overprotective of me, yes, he drank from me, and yes, I do feel fine."

Tatsuya and Katsuya just nodded. "After crossing dimensions several times, I can't find that weird," said Tatsuya.

"The only thing I find strange about all this is coming to meet my baby cousin, and finding out that now you're technically older than me," said Katsuya. "I think that I can't be surprised by anything anymore."

"You'd be surprised how much you don't get used to," said Soma from under the sheets. "You learn about the occult, run into everything supernatural and insane, and just when you think you know how the world works, BAM! Giant robot lands on you. I'm starting to think that I'm attracting all the weirdoes in the world."

At that moment, Naoki walked in with a pair of people in identical blue and white longcoats. They were holding bubble teas and bags full of shojo manga. "Hi, I found some samurai in the manga section of the bookshop," said Naoki. "They're from an alternate reality where Tokyo was nuked but wasn't destroyed like in Kazuya's world. They've been living in a pseudo-Japanese-pseudo-European state for most of their lives, and they got here from abuse of a black hole generator."

Two identical and electronic voices spoke from the two samurais' arm area. "I'm detecting a strong demon ahead," they said.

"See what I mean?" said Soma. "Good night."

TO BE CONTINUED!

I have a lot planned next chapter.

Originally, the snow prank was just a prank. But then I realized that preventing someone from leaving a building is a fire hazard, which the Persona 2 gang knows all too well.


	18. Chapter 18: Sumaru City

I know this story is getting to be very much SMT, but I'll try to include more Castlevania. I will restrict the characters to SMT and its derivatives and Castlevania, not counting name cameos (most of Julius's immediate family share names with Fire Emblem 4 and 5 characters, but Julius is obviously not the host of the evil dragon god Loptyr) and very minor and possibly recurring characters. I've also decided to explain the SMT references, instead of just leaving them blank.

I was considering placing the story in Sumaru City, but then realized that I kept on saying that they lived far away from water.

To the Guest (I hope you know who you are): Yes, I know that introducing too many characters from lots of different stories messes it up. That's why I wanted to restrict the characters to Castlevania and SMT only.

I've been reading some old manga, and I found one called Angel Island. There was a scene where one protagonist stopped the female main antagonist from searching her room by saying that there was a mouse in the room. The female antagonist's reaction was basically, "Eek, a mouse!", and she left immediately. I find that scene is really what humanizes her the most. Sure, it's kind of sexist, but it really makes her seem like a person. Forget scenes where villains are shown playing with puppies or heroes having some sort of fatal flaw; this one scene was my favorite.

Sumaru City

"…And that's when I asked them about non-popsicle popsicles," said Soma. "They were talking about them all week. When you want to spread a rumor, you should ask people what they know about it. Other Tatsuya Suou told me that he spread the rumor about the Masked Circle by accident that way."

"Interesting," said Mina. "Did you spread the one that said that the school's gates will open if you rub the lock between one and three in the morning?"

"That was Leon, actually," said Soma, and then he sneezed loudly. "He gets bored just watching Julius, so sometimes he hangs around the school and scares people by doing stuff like that. He was being nice the first time, when someone tried to warm it up with body heat when her key didn't work. When she told her friends about it, he happened to be there again, so he opened it again and again."

"I thought that he couldn't move things," said Mina.

"He can, it's just that he doesn't do it very often," said Soma, wincing. "It scared people too much when he moved things in their own home, even if he was cleaning up. Moving stuff around in public places doesn't have enough of an impact. Messing with a school is a happy medium (no pun intended)."

"But he can't do it every night," said Mina. "Won't people stop believing the rumor if they can see that it doesn't work?"

"It adds more fuel to the fire," said Soma, and then he broke into a coughing fit. "Sorry about that. If it's erratic and they can't explain it, then they'll keep on talking about it. People will turn up at weird hours to bring their friends, and when it works, they'll all tell everyone and get into arguments with the people who tried it and it didn't work for them."

"Is it really a good idea for him to experiment with rumors like that?" asked Mina.

"The Suou brothers said that it only applied to Sumaru City, so it should be fine," said Soma.

Beside Soma, a mechanical woman's voice spoke. "That's it! That's all you need. Just turn it in and you're done."

Soma turned around to face Flynn and his three demons. "Seriously?"

"Yes, you have enough pennies to pay off your debt," said Burroughs, Flynn's AI assistant.

"Are you sure?" asked Mina skeptically. "Last time, you forgot the exchange rate."

"I calculated that already," said Burroughs evenly. "These is also a 500 penny buffer in case anyone miscounts."

"Good," said Soma.

Flynn put his hand on Soma's shoulder as Soma got out of the bed. "And my reward?"

"Oh, right," said Soma, handing Flynn several bags full of canned food, water, cheap electronics, textbooks, ammo, and other various knickknacks that the residents of Not Entirely Nuked Alternate Tokyo would need. More importantly, they were all knickknacks that the residents of Not Entirely Nuked Alternate Tokyo would pay good Macca for.

"Thank you for helping us, Flynn," said Mina.

"You're welcome," said Flynn. "But you contributed more to this. You're the one who healed Soma. I just cast Cough and Death's Door; you stopped him from dying." [1]

"As much as I hate that you kept on hurting me, thank you for helping me pay off my debt," said Soma. He sighed. "Using the Mimic soul to pay off my father's debt to the Portuguese mafia is not how I wanted to spend my weekends."

"At least they don't care if it's in pennies," said Mina. "And you won't have to be afraid of them anymore. But how are you going to tell your parents that you paid off their debt? If the mafia just tells them that they forgave them, then they'll just be paranoid that one day, they'll ask for a favor."

Soma sighed, and tried to come up with a good excuse. Since he was a procrastinator, he instead thought back to one month ago.

X

"Hey, Soma?" Hammer called Soma on his cell phone one day.

"Yes, Hammer?" asked Soma.

"You know Sumaru City?" asked Hammer.

"That's where Tatsuya and Jun and Michelle are from," said Soma. "That's all I know about it."

"Well, I heard a lot about it," said Hammer. "Everyone there swears that the city flew for over a week, and then came down to earth. And that's not getting into all the other crazy stuff I've heard about it. Everyone in sanatorium was killed by a patient, who was talking about the Oracle of Maia and allegedly summoned demons."

"That sounds insane and probably not true," said Soma.

"But Soma, you devoured the soul of Bigfoot on the outskirts of a castle made by a cult that was meant to copy Count Dracula's castle," said Hammer. He assumed that even if his phone was tapped, no one would believe him.

"Just because I can do something like that doesn't mean that other weird stuff automatically exists," retorted Soma.

"Come on, Soma," said Hammer. "I'm going there to check things out. I'm meeting with this guy from Ayakashi Monthly, and I hear that there are demons there. They have a nice beach there." What went unsaid was that Hammer couldn't bring his guns to town without the cops busting him.

"Sure," said Soma. "I don't have anything to do, anyways."

Mina asked if she could come along with them, and the three of them took a train to Sumaru City. It was a sunny day out, which made Soma glad that he was no longer a vampire.

Sumaru City seemed like any other city with a proud history of samurai and people doing stupid stuff like burning down castles, but the truth was that its foundation was steeped in dark secrets.

At the station, Mina went off to talk to a girl she knew from her class. She came back with a soda and a confused expression. "Lisa didn't seem to know me at all," she said. "She thought I was one of her fans. Since when was she a member of an idol group? Last time I checked, she had enough on her plate with kung fu stunt double work and studying to be a translator."

"Maybe she just forgot about you," said Soma.

"It can't be," said Mina, not in denial but in confusion. "We hung out just yesterday. We watched a movie, and then we beat up some muggers on our way out."

"That really is strange," said Soma, but he didn't think much of it at the time.

"We're meeting a guy named Jyoji Hijiri at Gatten Sushi," said Hammer once the train stopped.

"Hijiri?" repeated Soma. "I think I heard that name before."

Soma didn't know what to expect when he came to the shop. One thing he didn't expect was a makeupless Eikichi Mishima behind the bar, preparing the rice.

The other thing he didn't expect was Julius having unagi with a middle aged woman. Leon was hanging around them, listening and wondering why people willingly paid a lot of money for raw fish.

"Hello, Julius," said Mina. "What brings you here?"

Julius turned around, and his eyes widened. He looked like he wasn't sure what to say. "Um…"

"Hello, Soma," said Leon. "I don't know how to say this, but… you shouldn't meet get close to this woman."

"What?" said Soma. Then he took a good look at her. It was the same woman from the Portuguese mafia who had threatened his father. "It's you!"

The woman looked up. "You!?"

"You know each other?" asked Julius, incredulous. "The whole point of coming all the way here was to get away from you!"

"Oh, so you hate me that much?" asked Soma jokingly.

"No, it's just that…" Julius sighed. "Let's get the rest to go. We can talk somewhere else."

"Okay," said Soma. "Bye, Eikichi. Next time, I'll beat you."

Eikichi gave Soma a confused look. "What did I ever do to you?"

"The party, when we tried to hold our breath?" asked Soma uncertainly.

"I think I hear the rice cooker," said Eikichi quickly, and he went into the back.

At that moment, Hammer came up front with a guy with a nice moustache from a back table. "This is Hijiri, everyone," said Hammer. "Um… did something happen in the thirty seconds I was gone?"

"Hey, aren't you the kid I interviewed a while back?" asked Hijiri. "You look healthier."

Soma remembered the weird reporter who wasn't a woman. "So that's why your name was familiar."

The group left the shop.

"This city is very strange," said Hijiri. "The people here are even stranger. I was talking to a photographer I knew from an investigation we did, and she didn't even recognize me. She didn't even remember the investigation."

"Strange," said Soma.

"Something's going on with this city," said Hijiri. "I intend to find out what."

"Let's just go," said Julius. He took them to the beach.

"Can we check out the Sky Museum first?" asked Hammer. "Well… what's left of it, anyways."

"You can go ahead," said Julius. "But I'd like Soma here to stay."

Hammer didn't want to leave without Soma. The group settled down on a picnic blanket and watched the waves.

"Everyone, this is Hilda Heinrich, my niece," said Julius.

"Yeah… who are you, again?" asked Hijiri.

"My name is Julius Belmont," said Julius. "Do you mind leaving? This is a private conversation."

"Fine, I'll go away," said Hijiri. "Just give me a call when you're done," he added to Hammer. Hijiri then walked off, along the beach.

"Hilda is one of the few Belmonts who kept training after I killed Dracula all those years ago," said Julius.

"And you said that she works for the mob," said Mina.

"It's the mafia," said Hilda haughtily. "Mob insinuates that we're an unorganized group of muggers."

"Same difference," growled Soma. This was met by a glare from Hilda, which Soma ranked higher than Daisuke's but lower than Julius's.

"You two look pretty alike," said Hammer in an effort to relieve the tension. "I mean, your faces are a little similar. Is Julius your mother's brother or your father's?"

"Uncle Julius is my mother's cousin," said Hilda, the mood lightening a bit. "'Uncle' is less of a mouthful than 'First Cousin Once Removed' Julius."

"How do you two know each other?" asked Julius, darkening the mood and making Hammer's question in vain.

"Her mob kidnapped me," said Soma. "Remember how when I was a vampire, I was kidnapped by the Portuguese mafia? She was there. She threatened me and my family."

"Ah," said Julius. Both he and Leon looked awkward, as if he wasn't sure which side to take.

"So why didn't you want Soma to meet her?" asked Mina. "Was it because of the mafia?"

Hilda and Soma turned to face Julius, who cleared his throat. "Not exactly. Um… Hilda, you were at the family reunion two years ago, right? You know that I found Dracula's reincarnation, but refused to say who it was?"

Hilda nodded and tensed. "It's him, isn't it?"

Julius nodded. "Don't go for your whip or weapons. I didn't want any of the others to know who he was, and I didn't want him to know any other member of my family."

"What about Leon?" asked Soma.

"Leon is already dead," said Julius. He took in a deep breath. "I wanted both of you (and by that, I mean Soma and my family in general) to know of each others' existences, but not your identities. Soma, if you become Dracula (or if Dracula comes back and he has your memories), I don't want you to be able to track down my relatives. Hilda, I don't want anyone other than me to know who Dracula is, because I believe that at least one person will try to kill Soma. This isn't just because I like Soma, by the way. As long as Soma lives without being Dracula, it lengthens the time between resurrections. Additionally, if you happen to form a bond with each other, then it will be that much harder to kill him if he does become Dracula."

"Then again, Mathias isn't heartless," said Leon. "He didn't try to kill me. He might show mercy if he likes you. But trying for that is inadvisable."

"It's too late for me now," said Hilda.

"The feeling is mutual," said Soma.

Hammer chuckled. "You know, if it weren't for the fact that Soma has a girlfriend and that you're old enough to be his mother, I'd say that if this were a movie, then you'd be in love by the credits."

"I don't have a girlfriend!" said Soma hotly.

"Really?" said Hilda, genuinely surprised. "From what I heard from Margarita, I thought that you were dating. Especially after how you abducted her from her bed and threatened to impale her upon a fence if she ever laid a hand on Mina."

"You did that?" asked Mina.

"Well… yes," said Soma. "I was a little short tempered, sleep deprived, thirsty, and also vampirized. I took a note from Chihiro and thought that she might attack you in an attempt to get to me, so I told her that if she ever wanted to fight me, come to me instead of attacking my loved ones."

At that moment, Tatsuya Suou and someone who looked a lot like him came out of the water in swimsuits. They were holding the corpse of a giant sea serpent. The person who was not Tatsuya was yelling and waving a badge at Hijiri, who was holding a camera.

"Hey, Tatsuya!" called Mina. "How's it going?"

Tatsuya just gave her a blank look. "Everything's fine," he said, trying to hide the snake behind his back. Hijiri snuck a picture in.

The other person looked at Soma with a look of horror upon his face. "Oh no…"

"How's your relationship with Jun?" asked Mina. "I heard you had a fight the other day."

Tatsuya looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but there, which was unusual for such a coolheaded guy. "Um…"

"Lisa told me that you and Jun went through a lot, but you both really love each other," said Mina. "She also said that… hey, didn't you break your arm last Tuesday?"

Tatsuya dropped his left hand. "Ow, I really shouldn't have-"

"It was your right," said Mina. "Lisa said that you had to sit out your Chemistry test because you couldn't write."

Tatsuya looked like he really wanted to run.

Soma looked at Tatsuya and remembered something. He remembered that he and Kazuya were cousins, but there was also something more important that he forgot. Something that had to do with everyone he knew who was from this city acting weird…

"I'm going to stop you right there," said the person who looked a lot like Tatsuya. "I'm Tatsuya's brother, Katsuya."

"Aren't you the cop I interviewed the other day?" asked Hijiri. "And you. You're one of the students I interviewed."

The brothers looked at each other with defeated expressions. "Let's tell them," said This Katsuya Suou. "They've dug too deep. This guy works for an occult magazine. He'll believe us. And better he knows this than he tells the world about clones. And the other guy's Kazuya's roommate. He knows that the Other you is from an alternate dimension."

"Oh, right!" said Soma. "Now I remember. Kazuya told me, and I thought I was having a sleep deprived hallucination."

"Can we go somewhere more private first?" asked This Tatsuya Suou.

"Okay, fine," said This Katsuya Suou. He turned to the group. "All right, we can explain, as long as we go somewhere where we won't be eavesdropped upon."

The problem was that no one could decide where they could go. Public places were a no go; while it was hard to be eavesdropped upon, it was also very hard to actually hear each other. Parks had the opposite problem. They considered going to the mountains or forest, but then realized that passing hikers could hear everything. This Tatsuya Suou suggested his and This Katsuya Suou's place, but This Katsuya Suou said that it was too small.

So the group awkwardly sat in the abandoned factory.

"So… you want to know what's going on, right?" said This Katsuya Suou awkwardly.

"I'd like an explanation for why you kidnapped me," Soma said sharply to Hilda.

Hilda shrugged haughtily. "It was just business."

"Wait, she was the one who kidnapped you?" said This Katsuya Suou.

Soma looked straight at Leon. "Aren't you ashamed of her?"

"Oh, pulling the ancestor card, are we?" said Hilda.

"Soma, you do know that since you're the only one here who can see ghosts, we have no way of knowing if you're just putting words in Leon's mouth," said Mina. "Unless Julius brought the thing that lets us see ghosts."

"Hey, don't ignore me!" said This Katsuya Suou, but no one cared.

"Got you covered," said Julius, taking out the magic glasses that let him see through illusions and also let him see Leon. No one could figure out how it helped him listen to Leon at the same time.

"Can I try them on?" asked Hammer.

"As long as you don't break them," said Julius, handing them over carefully. "Then again, it was made by your ancestor. The chairs he made survived for centuries."

"Yes, Christopher tried to sell some of the chairs to the tavern to pay off his tab," said Leon. "The innkeeper returned them when a drunken ox thief found that the chairs were so sturdy that they made better bludgeoning weapons than actual clubs. I believe that someone had a very bad head injury. The innkeeper then had a fight with Christopher because he said that Christopher should pay up, but then Christopher said that he already paid the innkeeper and he was refusing payment, so then they tried to settle it with a duel at dawn, but the innkeeper knew that Christopher had killed Mathias once before, so the innkeeper said that the weapons should be pillows…"

Hammer stared at Leon. "You know, I expected you to be a bit more… I don't know. Either fifty years older or built like Conan the Barbarian."

"I was wondering that, too," said Soma. "Why do you look like you're twenty-two when you said that you lived longer than that?"

"Where did you get the number twenty two from?" asked Hammer.

"Do you mind explaining what the heck you're talking about?" asked This Katsuya Suou.

"The ghost of my ancestor hangs around my house, and Soma is the only one who can see him," said Julius. "He's Hilda's ancestor, too."

" _Thank_ you," said This Katsuya Suou.

"You're taking this really well," said Mina.

"I'm a cop," said This Katsuya Suou. "This is not the strangest thing I've ever seen or heard. But back to the kidnapping…"

"But why did you said that Leon looked twenty two?" asked Hammer. "Why not a more even number, like twenty or twenty five or something?"

"Dracula's memories," said Soma. "That's my excuse for almost everything. Including my horrible chemistry grades. Leon looks exactly like how he did when Dracula last saw him, which was when he was twenty two. Same clothes and everything."

"What do you mean by Dracula's memories?" asked This Tatsuya Suou.

"What was the strangest thing you ever saw, Katsuya?" asked Julius.

"Can we just pick one avenue of conversation and stick with it?" asked Mina. "Otherwise, this is going to get very confusing."

"Can we go back to, 'Leon, are you ashamed that your great times whatever granddaughter works for the Portuguese mafia?'" asked Soma.

"Can I get a beef bowl to go?" asked Hijiri. He was on the phone. "Do you guys want anything?"

Everyone placed an order.

"You didn't tell the takeout place where we were," said Mina.

"Aiya delivers everywhere," said Hijiri simply. He offered no other explanation. [2]

"Soma, Hammer, before we lose the train of thought, can I answer your question?" asked Leon.

"Sure, as long as you're quick," said Soma.

"I didn't know that I looked the way I did until I met Viktor when he died," said Leon. "No mirror reflected me. I don't even know what I look like now; I just remember what I used to look like. I can see my body like you do without mirrors, but that's it."

"You look exactly like how Dracula remembered you," said Soma. "Down to the nose and the exact color of your eyes. Whenever I heard the name Leon, I always imagined you. It's been like that ever since I was a kid."

Leon nodded patiently. "I figured as much. Ghosts tend to look the way they imagine themselves. Usually, that's what they looked like when they died, but I heard from some of the older ghosts that as every event of their lives becomes equally distant, they start gravitating towards the idea of themselves that they had during the most significant event in their lives. For me, it was somewhere around giving up my knighthood and swearing to kill the night."

Soma nodded. "Makes sense."

"That only makes sense because I have no knowledge whatsoever about ghosts," said Hammer. "When it comes to the supernatural, it's almost impossible to sift out the truth."

"All the ghosts I've seen looked like glowing outlines," said Hijiri.

"It varies a lot," said Leon.

"You ordered from Aiya?" said a voice behind them. It was a girl with blue hair. "I have your order."

"Yes, we did," said Hijiri. "Cough up, everyone. I don't have enough yen for all of you."

Everyone but Leon sat down and ate their food. The girl vanished after telling them to leave the bowls anywhere.

"All the ghosts I've seen were in Castlevania or that clone place, and they looked like blobs or floating flaming Dry Bones," said Hammer, eating his fsteak bowl. "You know, those undead things in Super Mario Bros."

"Really?" said Soma. "I thought they looked more like Yoshi skeletons."

"Those don't count," said Leon. "They don't have any sense of self anymore."

"Dracula is real?" asked This Tatsuya Suou.

"It's been my family's duty to kill him every time he arises, I killed him in 1999, and Soma here is his reincarnation," said Julius.

Hijiri wrote that down in his notebook.

"Is that all?" asked Soma. Leon nodded. "All right. Are you ashamed of Hilda?"

Leon looked as if he wanted to say something, just to make it seem as if he already had it figured out, but he just didn't know what to say. "Yes, but I still love you?" he said awkwardly.

"He says that he still loves you, but he is disappointed," said Hammer.

"With emphasis on the love," said Leon quickly. Soma relayed that.

This Katsuya Suou nodded. "You can be disappointed in someone and still love them. Love isn't always hugs and cakes."

Hilda didn't seem to care. "We're talking about someone who I didn't even know was still around. Why should I care what he thinks?"

Soma expected Leon to be upset, but Leon just gave a sad nod. "I'm used to that," he said. "Even if I love my descendants, they never know how I feel about them."

"Unrequited love, I guess," said Hammer.

"So what was the strangest thing you ever saw?" asked Julius.

"I can't exactly list all of them, but I'd say that having my brother from an alternate dimension kick me out of a moving blimp that used to be a decoration before it magically flew with the power of rumors is a good starting point," said This Katsuya Suou.

"Okay, that is much weirder than ghosts," said Hammer.

"I explained this all to Kazuya the other day," said This Katsuya Suou. "You'd know this if you didn't kick us out of the room, Soma."

Soma shrugged defensively. "I was drugged, thirsty, and still adapting to a nocturnal sleep cycle. What do you expect?"

"Can you explain more?" asked Mina.

"It's a very long story," both Suou brothers said in unison.

"Katsu knows more than I do," said This Tatsuya Suou.

"And the Other Tatsuya Suou, the one you go to school with, knows even more than I do," said This Katsuya Suou. "But here's what he told me. The world we're in now is actually a universe that was created two years ago (it was created two years ago in that dimension, but in our dimension it existed for a long time). The previous universe, which we call the Other Side, was destroyed during the Grand Cross. The reason why is much more complicated."

"We have time," said Mina.

"If you say so," said This Katsuya Suou. "On the Other Side, my brother Tatsuya made friends with four other children when they were young. Their names were Maya Amano, Jun Kurosu, Eikichi Mishima, and Lisa Silverman. Maya had to move away one day, and the other three were so upset that they locked her into a shrine. Tatsu tried to stop them, but they locked him in, too."

"Given that Maya was several years older than… them, I think that she could have resisted if she wanted to, but she didn't want to hurt her friends," said This Tatsuya Suou, stumbling over the fact that he was talking about someone who was technically him as if he were another person. "Most twelve year olds can easily overpower seven or eight year olds."

"It would have been fine, if a passing arsonist hadn't set the shrine on fire," said This Katsuya Suou. "Maya lifted Tatsu out of the window, but he couldn't lift her out. He tried to get help, but the arsonist, Tatsuya Sudou (note the D) attacked him. And then Tatsuya activated his Persona, Vulcanus, for the first time."

"Persona?" asked Mina.

"It's the power of your soul," explained This Tatsuya Suou. He started glowing with a blue light, and a figure appeared above him. "This is Vulcanus. He's an aspect of my mind, and I summon the power of the god Vulcanus using him. I'm him, he's me, and I don't know how that works either. You get a Persona if you've played the Persona game, but you can't activate it until you're in a life threatening situation. On the Other Side, Maya taught… them how to play the game. On This Side, Katsu played it with me. I unlocked my Persona when I fell off the roof of a building. Maya unlocked her Persona when she was trapped inside that fire. Hers didn't nullify fire like mine or Katsu's, but it made water and ice appear long enough for the firemen to arrive. It was a miracle that she survived."

"So then Maya moved away without saying goodbye, because her mother thought that having her meet the children who locked her into a burning shrine would traumatize her," continued This Katsuya Suou. "All five of them locked away that memory. They moved away gradually. Our father was a policeman who had pinpointed Sudou as the arsonist, but Sudou was the son of a prominent politician who pulled strings to keep his son out of jail. Father was arrested. Tatsu and I had to move in with our relatives. We lived with our aunt and our cousin Kazuya."

"You're Kazuya's cousin?" blurted Hammer.

"Yes, do you know any other Japanese person with red hair?" asked This Tatsuya Suou.

"I can't tell if it's natural or not," said Hammer. "And besides, I'm American. I can't assume that everyone with the same hair color is related."

"Lisa Silverman had to move because of her father's job," continued This Katsuya Suou. "Eikichi Mishima stayed, but Jun Kurosu was brainwashed by Nyarlathotep and moved in with it."

"Nyarlathotep?" asked Hammer. "Like Lovecraft?"

"Nyarly is the incarnation of humanity's evils," explained This Tatsuya Suou. "He's at fault for most of this."

"By complete coincidence, the five of them met again," said This Katsuya Suou. "Jun was brainwashed into becoming the Joker, an urban legend that granted wishes at the cost of a person's ideals."

"I don't really get what they mean by ideals either, but it has something to do with your grip on reality," said This Tatsuya Suou. "If you're given everything, your grip on reality weakens. And you produce something called Ideal Energy… Anyways, people who lose their ideals turn into shadows of their former selves. No one can see or hear them, and they forget that they even exist."

"Lisa and Tatsu went to the same high school, and Eikichi and Jun went to another," said This Katsuya Suou. "Maya was a reporter. According to them, even though they couldn't remember knowing each other, they still reacted to each other a little differently. Lisa had a huge crush on Tatsu, who didn't like her back. Eikichi became a gang leader, but he didn't want to pick on Jun. Neither Lisa nor Tatsu were afraid of Eikichi. One day, Eikichi, Lisa, and Tatsu met someone named Philemon, who is the incarnation of humanity's goodness. He's still a jerk."

"That should say something about the world," said Hilda. Hijiri nodded sagely.

"Philemon told them that rumors were becoming true, which they tested by summoning Joker," said This Katsuya Suou. "Jun accused them of committing an unforgivable crime against him. When they said that they couldn't remember, he ran off."

"And then… they met Maya again," said This Tatsuya Suou. "They couldn't remember her. Long story short, the rumors went insane. Over time, they remembered that they were once friends, and discovered that Jun was brainwashed into thinking that they killed Maya. Not even proving that Maya was alive helped. For years, they thought that they did kill Maya, so… They had to beat Nyarly out of him."

"Hang on, you thought that you killed Maya?" asked Soma. "Your parents never told you that she survived? What kind of parent would make you think that you killed your friend?"

"The other Tatsuya and I are two different people," said This Tatsuya Suou pointedly. "But… according to Other Dad, he did tell my other self that Maya was alive. But my other self didn't believe him, and thought that Dad was trying to spare him the guilt of not being able to save her. Maya had completely forgot about us, so when Dad put her and my other self onto a phone call, my other self didn't believe that it was her. I think it must have been the same with Ginko and Michelle."

"Who?"

"Lisa and Eikichi," said This Tatsuya Suou. "Those are their nicknames. You should call them that from now on because we need to differentiate between our alternate selves."

"Jun returned to his senses, but due to the rumors of the apocalypse coming true, the world was destroyed," said This Katsuya Suou. "Maya died. But then Philemon offered to reset the universe, if the day the five of them met never happened. They accepted, creating This Side."

"But my other self couldn't let his friends go," said This Tatsuya Suou. "The foundation of This Side was that the five of us couldn't remember the day we met. When my other self remembered, the fabric of the universe began to weaken."

"And that's how I got my Persona," said This Katsuya Suou. "My other brother was trying to fix the damage, and there was a lot of chaos from the Other Side merging with this one. I got my Persona when Sudou (that's the arsonist) remembered the Other Side, and tried to merge the two sides. We managed to restore the balance with the help of Maya, Ulala Serizawa, Kei Nanjo, Eriko Kirishima, and Baofu. And then Other Tatsuya returned to his side, because he couldn't stay without making the balance worse."

"And then it all became weird," said This Tatsuya Suou. "Everyone in Sumaru City (it was the only place that survived the apocalypse) felt like they were living in two different worlds since the time split two years ago. That's normal. I heard that it was pretty bad when my other self was disrupting the balance, but I don't know how bad because I was blacked out at the time. You see, in order to move to this world, my other self had to possess my body because only one person can exist as themselves at a time. Even after he left and the balance was fixed, the resonation was always there, like background noise. We'd see things in dreams and sometimes think what we had for lunch yesterday was something that our other selves had."

"And then it all stopped," said This Katsuya Suou. "After the June of this year, we couldn't feel the Other Side anymore. Then I found my other self, my Other Father, and Other Tatsuya in the kitchen one night. They had let themselves in. It was unreal. I thought that the people from the Other Side could only come in using bodies that were already here."

"If you thought that that was strange, at least you had an explanation," said This Tatsuya Suou. "I nicked your gun and tried to shoot my clone."

"That's pretty standard procedure," said Julius. "If you meet a clone, they're probably evil. All my ancestors said that."

"I've had a bad experience with Doppelgangers," said Soma.

"We managed to sort things out in the end," said This Katsuya Suou. "But they told us that they were drifting through space, when all of a sudden their contact broke, too. They found that they could travel through dimensions for unrelated reasons, so they decided that they could drop into one that seemed like it was safe. They dropped off several people, and due to a miscommunication, Michelle was also transported to our dimension. There were no problems, but there should have been. Other Tatsu and I shared notes, and we found that yes, this was the same dimension that he was in one year ago, and we both remember meeting each other. But we couldn't decide on the date. I said that we saved the world in 2035, and he said that it was 1999. We both said that it was around the time of the Grand Cross. The apocalypse was because of the Grand Cross, by the way."

Mina, Hammer, Julius, and Soma looked at each other. "Naoki's fault?" said Mina.

"Naoki?" said Hijiri, suddenly alert. "Actually… Naoki's a pretty common name. There's no way-"

"Naoki Kashima?" asked Soma with a deadpan look. "Scrawny, short?"

"Yeah, that's him," said Hijiri.

"He's my roommate," said Soma. He sighed. "I should have known. Insane coincidences follow me everywhere. How do you know him?"

"We met before the Conception began," said Hijiri. "The Conception is the end of the world so that a new one can be born again. Everyone died, except for a few people. I survived. Kind of. Not really. You see, I have a curse on me that says that I must observe every single Conception in the multiverse, without being able to do a thing about it. I found this out when I was going through this interdimensional network with all the information that you could ever want."

"The internet?" asked Julius.

"The Amala Network," said Hijiri. "There's an entire section devoted to all my past life experiences. So that's what became of Naoki. I lost track of him. He made a new universe just like the old one, except with some tiny differences."

"We met Naoki when we told Kazuya about us," said This Tatsuya Suou. "We had to tell Kazuya eventually. We weren't supposed to tell anyone, but… You were right in the room back then. We could have avoided this conversation if you didn't kick us out."

"I was tired, bloodthirsty, and a vampire," said Soma. "Bite me."

"Naoki told us that's why our other selves could come into this universe with no consequences other than overpopulation and identity theft," said This Katsuya Suou. "Since the universe was reset, the existence of this timeline no longer depended on the five forgetting that day."

"Why do you have that curse?" asked Julius.

"I killed God in a past life," said Hijiri.

There was a long pause as everyone tried to figure out what Hijiri had just said, and if they had heard him right.

"You killed… God?" asked Julius.

"He got better," said Hijiri.

"Before we move onto that, can we talk about why you had to tell Kazuya?" asked Mina.

The brothers nodded.

X

The mountains were a great place to hold top secret gatherings. Most people thought that holding secret meetings in seedy inns were a good idea if they didn't want to be seen. Their more streetwise peers knew that holding meetings in crowded pubs stopped interlopers from hearing them. But these people knew both of these theories, and they knew that they could not do either. They could neither be seen nor heard by anyone. That is, they were in a position where it was inadvisable to be seen or heard. Most people could see and hear them just fine. Not even walking around at midnight with black, all concealing cloaks would help; they would be followed by the police if they did that. So these four people found a secluded spot in the mountains to meet in, and held a barbeque there.

Had a casual observer been around to hear, they would have heard lots of chatting. They could hear four voices talking. If they stuck around, they would have pinpointed only two very distinct voices. Had they looked, they would have seen two pairs of identical people standing around a grill. To prevent others from watching the gathering of two pairs of identical people who were not twins, the four men chose a secluded meeting spot.

Other Tatsuya Suou flipped over a hot dog with his bare hands. "Who would have thought that the only practical, real life use of our Persona ability to summon the power of the gods with our minds would be immunity to fire?" said This Tatsuya Suou.

"Tatsu, you lit the grill with your Persona," said This Katsuya Suou, rearranging the logs on a lit campfire with his bare hands.

"Yes, other than that," said Other Tatsuya Suou.

"I don't use oven mitts anymore," said Other Katsuya Suou. "I can just take out the cakes without them. That's just fine; I always used to smudge the tops. But Tatsu, if you touch the hot dogs, your hands will get greasy."

"We can wash our hands in the lake," said Other Tatsuya Suou.

"So, um… Katsuya?" asked This Katsuya Suou. "Damn, using my name for someone else is weird. How's your patisserie business going?"

"Lots of kids going to my shop," said Other Katsuya Suou. "But I'm starting to think that the American bath goods seller next door is illegally selling arms. And I've been hearing a lot of rumors about cults and Count Dracula."

"I guess having someone who hears all the rumors is useful for a cop," said This Tatsuya Suou.

Other Tatsuya Suou flinched at the word 'rumor', but he said, "We know that the rumors don't come true anymore, right?"

"But the effects are still lingering," said This Katsuya Suou. He sighed. "You're still a mechanical genius, and we still haven't caught the memo eating ghoul in the attic."

This Tatsuya Suou handed him a hot dog. "Katsu, let's not talk about work. You need to unwind."

This Katsuya Suou smiled. "Thank you, Tatsu."

Other Tatsuya Suou cleared his throat. "If we're all here, I think that you should know that I go to the same college as Kazuya."

"Our cousin Kazuya?" asked This Katsuya Suou.

Other Tatsuya Suou nodded.

"We know that he didn't make it on the Other Side," Other Katsuya Suou said helpfully. "He called us from Ueno on the same day that Sumaru City flew. As you know, everything but Sumaru City was destroyed during the Grand Cross two years ago."

This Tatsuya Suou and This Katsuya Suou looked at each other. "This might be bad," said This Tatsuya Suou.

Other Tatsuya Suou was tempted to ask how bad could possibly be. "Butterfly effect?" he asked. "Are you close to Kazuya?"

This Tatsuya Suou nodded. "Remember how we had to move in with his mother when Dad was arrested? We didn't have many friends growing up, so we latched onto each other. You weren't close?"

"I didn't want friends after my best friends locked me in the shrine," said Other Tatsuya Suou. "I didn't hate him, but we were never friends."

"How is your relationship now?" asked This Tatsuya Suou. "Do you share the same classes?"

"Same dorm, and same classes," said Other Tatsuya Suou. "He looks away every time I try to look at him."

"Really?" asked This Tatsuya Suou. "I can't imagine Kazuya acting like this. He was always so… he was always a real crybaby. He was shy and he always needed other people. Never a good combination. That's probably why I was his only friend."

"Whiny, too," said This Katsuya Suou. "Sweet, but he never wanted to admit it. He wanted to be a tough guy. Time and experiences change everyone."

"Let's tell him next time we meet," said Other Tatsuya Suou.

They were interrupted by a bloody white bat flying past their campsite. All of them freaked out; their strange world may have made them used to all the weird stuff, but that also served to make them more paranoid. There was a splashing sound, much too loud for a bat landing in water, and then the same bat flew back, this time wet and pristine.

"You just saw that, didn't you?" said Other Katsuya Suou.

"Yes, I did," said This Tatsuya Suou.

This Katsuya Suou turned to Other Tatsuya Suou. "So, how far have you gotten with Persona powered engines?"

X

"How did you remember the entire conversation?" asked Mina when This Tatsuya Suou finished talking.

"I'm studying to be a cop," said This Tatsuya Suou. "It's my job to remember details."

"Yes, but that's ridiculous," said Mina.

"I just have a good memory," said This Tatsuya Suou.

"You didn't even explain anything," said Soma.

"Shush," said Hijiri.

X

It was over a week before Other Tatsuya Suou could muster up the will to talk to Kazuya. Kazuya always seemed like he was busy. When This Katsuya Suou came to campus to help investigate the disappearance of a professor, he nagged Other Tatsuya Suou to confess. He also tried to bribe Other Tatsuya Suou with cake. Other Tatsuya Suou agreed only if This Katsuya Suou was there with him.

So Other Tatsuya Suou was forced to go up to Kazuya and ask him if they could talk in private. Kazuya gave him a look as if he was measuring if he could take Other Tatsuya in a fight, and then invited him and This Katsuya to his dorm.

"Kazuya, I'm not actually your cousin," said Other Tatsuya Suou.

"You're adopted?" asked Kazuya. "I thought our family was the only people with natural reddish brown hair in Japan."

This Katsuya Suou shook his head. "He's from an alternate dimension that was destroyed in an apocalypse."

The brothers wanted to see how their cousin would react. "Which one?" asked Kazuya seriously. "Was it a nuclear apocalypse?"

"The world was destroyed by the Grand Cross in 1999," said Other Tatsuya Suou, slightly taken aback by his cousin's lack of surprise or real disbelief. "It was technically my fault."

"What a coincidence," said Kazuya. "Tokyo was nuked in 1999 in the alternate universe where I'm from, and it was kind of my fault but not really."

The newest generation of Suou men looked at each other. "I think we all have some splainin to do."

The Suou brothers explained what they knew. "You're taking this very well," said This Katsuya Suou. "You don't believe us, do you?"

"I do," said Kazuya. "But I do remember that when I tried to make friends with you, Tatsuya, you said that you didn't want friends. We weren't very close. I do remember that we played Go Fish and Old Maid a lot, and I always lost Go Fish and you always got Jokers in Old Maid."

"I remember that," said Other Tatsuya Suou. "What about your story?"

Kazuya told his cousins about alternate Tokyo. They were sufficiently surprised.

"All right, just because I fought flying Nazi mechas equipped with copies of the Lance of Longinus doesn't mean that I can't be surprised," said Other Tatsuya Suou.

"What?" said Kazuya.

"Never mind," said Other Tatsuya Suou. "I've said enough. You said that you knew why we have a different timeline?"

Kazuya nodded. "This is only speculation. My roommate can explain it better. Both my roommates have strange things going on, too."

X

"And that's when you came in," said This Katsuya Suou.

"And I kicked you out because I really needed sleep," said Soma. "Where did you go after that?"

"We went to get late night dinner," said This Katsuya Suou.

X

Jun Kurosu greeted Other Tatsuya Suou with a hug. "Hello, Tatsu," he said.

"Hello, Jun," said Other Tatsuya Suou. "You know Kazuya and my brother. And Naoki. This is Flynn and Isabeau. This is Jun. He unlocked his Persona in middle school, when he was being bullied."

The two samurai greeted Jun politely.

"Will your other roommate interrupt us?" asked Flynn.

"Actually, he kicked us out," said Jun Kurosu. "I was going to go to Michelle's room, but it turned out that he's out with his band. Michelle unlocked his Persona when he almost drowned in a lake as a child."

The group then went to get takeout.

"So, what was that about you knowing what was going on with the weird timeline?" asked This Katsuya Suou, eating his noodles.

"Oh, right," said Kazuya. "Naoki, can you explain?"

"Explain what?" said Naoki.

The Suou men explained what was going on. The two samurai nodded sympathetically, but they seemed a bit off balance. "Truly, I thought that nothing could shake me, after what I have seen," said Isabeau. "But I thought wrong."

Naoki cleared his throat, and explained that the Conception only applied to one timeline at a time, and since the Other Side had split before then, it wasn't affected. And since it was technically a new universe that was exactly like the old, the Other Side could merge with This Side with no consequences.

X

"Soma? You've been spacing out for a bit," said Mina. "Are you still sick?"

Soma emerged from his thought coma. "I'm fine," he said. "Still trying to think of how to tell my parents about their debt."

Instead, he thought back to how he struck that deal with Hilda.

X

"So will you forgive my parents for their debt?" Soma asked Hilda.

"No," said Hilda. "You know how much it is. I can't just write that off."

"Yeah, it's not like money grows on trees or anything," said Hijiri. He paused. "You know, I read that in my past life, I often wondered where demons got all this money from. Produce it from their bodies?"

Soma, Mina, and Hammer slowly looked at each other, understanding dawning between them. "I think this is the only time we can really get away with this," said Mina slowly.

"Do we really have to?" asked Soma.

"It'll take you years to get it the legal way," said Hammer. "Trust me. I did the math. And this isn't counting food expenses and education."

"What are you talking about?" asked Hijiri.

"I have the power to make American pennies appear whenever I get hurt," said Soma.

"Hilda, we want to pay off Soma's father's debt using that power," said Mina. "Will you accept the money in small change?"

Hilda nodded. "As long as it's legal tender."

"That settles it," said Mina.

Soma groaned inwardly, but knew that it was the only way. A little bit of pain was nothing compared to seeing his parents terrified. He remembered that Flynn knew a set of spells that could severely harm someone without killing them, so he enlisted Flynn and Mina into his money making operation.

X

"Still thinking up an excuse?" asked Mina. "You could tell them that you did a job for them."

"They'd think that I did something illegal," said Soma. "And even if it wasn't, a job that pays off the entire debt would be even more suspicious."

"There's always, 'her uncle is my friend,'" Mina suggested.

"I don't think that they'll believe that I just so happened to meet mafia executive Hilda Heinrich in a sushi shop…"

"You can say that you won the lottery," said Mina.

Soma looked up. "That might actually work."

It did, surprisingly enough. Soma's parents berated him for wasting money at first, and then Soma and his parents had… not quite an argument, but a disagreement over whether Soma should have paid a debt that belonged to his parents. His parents said that he shouldn't have to take on their sins, but Soma insisted that he couldn't stand to see them upset.

After hanging up, Soma realized that none of them ever asked Hijiri why he killed God.

X

When Soma was still a vampire, Leon often visited him. Leon said that while he followed him partially to monitor his eating habits, he also thought that Soma would be lonely. Soma was used to the idea that his friends always had the knowledge that he was Dracula on their minds, and that they always prepared accordingly.

Leon and Soma would fly around rooftops together despite the darkness hanging over them. "Leon, I've been wondering this for a while, but what have the Belmonts been doing when they weren't killing Dracula?" Soma asked one night.

"What do you mean?" asked Leon.

"How did you make a living? Monster hunting can't be that profitable."

Leon shrugged. "It depends. When I was alive, I killed monsters for a living, but it brought me little coin. Most of the time, the people I saved could only give me a meal and their gratitude. But I could hunt and scavenge for myself most of the time. I was fine until I married Betty. Part of the reason Berry divorced me was because I couldn't provide for her and our children on such a fickle trade. Veronica was rich, so we didn't have to worry about money, but as a hunter, I had to wander in search of people who needed my help. Betty travelled with me and plied her trade as a peddler, but Veronica could not leave her farm. Rumors began to fly about how her youngest children were not mine, so she divorced me. When it was just me, Cedric, and Victor, all three of us could provide for each other. I think that my other children went on to be apprenticed, or became farmers."

"What about Cedric and Victor's children?" asked Soma. "Did they all kill monsters for a living, too?"

Leon shook his incorporeal head. "It fluctuated. Some of them did become hunters even though they didn't have the whip, but most of the time, those who need monster hunters were those who were too poor to hire mercenaries. Most of my descendants lived ordinary lives, and often had to stable their hunter cousins. Over time, fewer and fewer of us were hunters, until only the bearer of the Vampire Killer was a hunter. That all changed when the clan was exiled in the fifteenth century."

"I was wondering about that," said Soma. "I heard from Julius that it was because the Belmonts had strange powers. But I don't recall any strange powers. I mean, I'd understand if Trevor's kids were exiled, since Sypha was a witch, but this was before she married in."

"It was because of Sonia," explained Leon. "Sonia was the current bearer of the Vampire Killer at the time, and the only hunter left in the clan. She wasn't exiled for being a female hunter, though. She manifested magical powers, and was seen as a witch. She would have been hanged, if it weren't for all the people she saved protesting at her trials. There was no doubt that Sonia used magic to save them, but they would not allow her to be executed. The clan was exiled instead."

"Everyone in the clan?" asked Soma.

"Most of us," said Leon. "Not counting the ones who married out, ran away, changed their names, or were too old to make the journey. But yes. We weren't very happy about it."

"I was wondering about that," said Soma. "I heard that they were banished from Wallachia. Isn't that an entire country?"

"Well, it wasn't as if they could enforce the law everywhere. We weren't allowed inside towns or cities, but mountains and forests were fair game. While we were there, we lived off the land and farmed what we could."

"And then Trevor killed Dracula, and they were allowed back?" asked Soma.

Leon nodded. "After that, we started taking the hunting business more seriously now that we knew how horrible the world could become under a Dark Lord. More of us were hunters. Our name became better known as a clan of hunters, so we could get better jobs as hunters. But there were rather a lot of us, and soon the monsters were almost exterminated. So then we were forced to get real jobs."

Soma had a sudden vision of Sonia Belmont (he knew that she never fought Dracula, but for some reason he imagined her very clearly) telling Trevor to stop going out to the pub and drinking mead with his friends and get a real job, and Trevor telling her that hunting is a real job.

"So then once again, we hardly had any hunters in the clan. Trevor became a farmer/hunter (hunting animals, not monsters) for the rest of his life, and Sonia taught the next generation of hunters. Mathias came back, and Christopher had to kill him twice. It was a great surprise when he came back, and we didn't figure out that he would keep coming back until Simon. After Simon, they started having one child dedicate his life to being a hunter. But between Trevor and Simon, even the hunters were required to have jobs. Trevor and his son Neville (you don't know him; he never faced Mathias) farmed, Chrisopher baked, Soleil made pots, Kurt was a butcher, Simon sewed-"

"Wait, what?" said Soma.

"Yes, I know that there are a lot of people you don't know, and lots of people farmed back then," said Leon.

"No, you said Simon sewed?" said Soma. "Simon Belmont? Six foot six, built like a tank? Could crush a skull between his bare hands?"

"I never understood your measurements, but yes, Simon was a very tall and muscular person," said Leon. "He also made and repaired clothing for a living. He liked making lots of different kinds of clothes. And dying his hair. He really loved playing dress up."

"I would think that needles would snap in those hands," said Soma, imaging the hulking bear of a man in his mother's dress and heels.

"Don't judge by appearances," said Leon. "Simon was a real sweetie."

"But you're like his great times whatever grandfather," retorted Soma. "You'll always see him as a small child, no matter how big he gets."

"True," said Leon. "Anyways, once it became our responsibility to kill Mathias every time he came back, we always had at least one hunter in the family. Even when the trade dried up, we all kept training anyways for the inevitable day. In the meantime, we were still a large family, so we could support the hunter. The problem was, we never figured out what would happen to the hunter after Mathias's next death. None of us anticipated that any of us could actually _want_ to be able to keep on fighting him."

"You're talking about Richter?" asked Soma.

Leon nodded. "Richter was unusual. Rather than being trained to kill monsters in general and regarding Mathias as just another monster to be killed, everyone after Simon was trained for the explicit purpose of killing Mathias. Richter knew that Mathias would come back after he was killed, and unlike Juste, he actually killed Mathias. He couldn't admit it, but he really was upset that his role in life had gone. He secretly wished that like with Christopher and Simon, Mathias would come back again in his lifetime and he could fight him once again. He wouldn't try to resurrect Mathias himself, mind you. After Shaft forced him to bring back Mathias, Richter spent the rest of his life trying to atone by becoming a vagabond and saving people wherever he went. Although I'm not sure how much was him trying to make up for the darkness he brought into the world and how much was him trying to find a purpose to his life."

Soma nodded. From what he'd heard of Richter, he thought of him as a spoilt thrill seeker, but after hearing about him from Leon, he seemed sadder. "And Richter spent the rest of his days fighting monsters?"

Leon nodded. "Without the Vampire Killer, too. Richter said that although he loathed admitting it, he liked the challenge of not having the Vampire Killer. That was happiness of a sort. He had handed the whip to one of his nieces (she wasn't exactly his niece as much as a distant relative who lived with him and was the same age as his children), Jane Morris, who had married an American man, telling her not to use it until she was in great danger due to her bloodline. Richter took the prophecy that no Belmont could use the whip until 1999 very seriously."

"How long did Richter live?" asked Soma.

"He lived to see his great great nephew Quincy kill Mathias," said Leon. "So… over a century. He managed to die of old age instead of in battle."

Talk of dying urged Soma to ask the question he wanted to ignore. "What's the deal with Death?" asked Soma. "Is Death the actual Grim Reaper? Because I would think that he'd be busy busing souls around instead of hanging with Dracula. And if he's the Grim Reaper, then how can we possibly kill him? I would think that it would be very hard to kill Death without the world being thrown into chaos because no one can die. Heck, I even Dominated his soul! Nothing bad happened yet. Did you meet him when you died? Flynn told me that he met Charon when he died (Charon let him come back)."

Leon shrugged. "I don't know. When I died, I did meet a skeletal figure in a robe. He spoke JUST LIKE THIS, so I don't think that it was the Death we knew."

"Then what is the Death we know?" asked Soma.

"I thought he was the actual Grim Reaper up until the day I died, but now I think he's merely a very powerful demon," said Leon.

"I think Naoki said something about a bunch of demons that were the incarnations of death," said Soma. "Death might be one of them."

"Can you ask him?" asked Leon.

Soma shook his head. "I tried. I don't think I have Death's soul, just his powers. I can't get an answer out of him at all." He sighed. "At the very least, we know that it won't be this Death we'll be meeting when we die."

"When _you_ die," corrected Leon.

"Please don't remind me," said Soma.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Cough and Death's Door: those two abilities, when used in conjunction, reduce the target's HP to 1. It's a handy way to severely harm Soma without killing him or wasting rotten food.

[2] Aiya is the name of a restaurant in Persona 4. In the anime, there's a character who delivers for Aiya named Aika. She delivers everywhere. Absolutely anywhere. She even manages to give Chie a beef bowl while they're running away from Kanji.

If you can correctly guess where I got the Death who Leon met upon dying, you're awesome.


	19. Chapter 19: Persephone

Just curious: does anyone know where I got Hilda Heinrich's surname? I got the name Hilda from Fire Emblem; she's Julius's mother in law and pretty much the worst person in the entire series. It's really hard to top how horrible a person she is. Then I picked the surname from another Hilda from a certain manga.

Also, Victoria Wednesday's surname comes from Mean Girls. One of the girls says that they wear pink on Wednesdays.

I'll try to make the SMT not steal the show as much from now on. I can't take them out, but they won't always be the focus. Due to complaints that this story has too many characters, I will not be introducing very many more. Actually, the chapter I was writing next did include 5 OCs, so I decided to get this one done and those OCs would only appear for that one chapter.

Persephone

Soma always wondered what happened to the stuff that the Persephone soul sucked up. Clearly, it sucked the life out of people, but it was also useful for sucking up dirt. Soma didn't use the soul very often because he couldn't just use the vacuum in his own house when his parents were around and knew that the vacuum was clearly in the kitchen, and Kazuya's Brownies did all the cleaning in the dorm.

However, Soma was glad to help vacuum Mina's room.

"Where does all this dust go?" asked Mina one day while Soma was vacuuming. As awkward as it was to see a guy and a girl in the same room alone together, it would be even worse if Soma was alone in Mina's room (Soma had been there and done that when he and Mina were talking in her room and she suddenly had to use the bathroom. Margarita came in from classes and immediately assumed that he was there to kill her. By the time Mina got back, they had already destroyed Chihiro's dresser and broken one of the mirrors). Soma was grateful that the vacuum was very quiet compared to the one he had at home.

"I don't know," said Soma. He knelt down and squeezed the bag. "I've run this thing underwater, too. I could still feel it suck up water. By all rights, it should be full. It's not even close."

"And it should smell, too," said Mina. "You know how you're not supposed to run a vacuum cleaner over puddles because the water stays in the bag and makes it moldy, right? Maybe it sucks in air or water and blows it out through a filter."

"I never wondered what happened to the air that got sucked up by vacuums," said Soma. "It's something so commonplace that you forget that you don't know about it."

"Neither did I," said Mina, and she looked it up on her phone. "I guess I should have known, but vacuums really do need to blow out the air. If it can filter out water the same way, that explains why it's not full of water. But that still doesn't explain how it's not moldy."

"And I've been running it all through Castlevania and Celia's castle, which were not the cleanest of places," said Soma. "You should have seen the Chapel. The whole place was full of cobwebs."

"That's the place with the stained glass and the dancing ghosts, right?" said Mina. "It was pretty and very atmospheric."

"Yeah, it was—wait, you went into the Chapel!?" said Soma, aghast. "But it was dangerous!"

Mina nodded levelly. "Of course it was. That's why I was worried about you. You seemed fine at the time, but I wanted to help you. I figured that since you were all right so far, I'd be fine too. I tried going outside, but the zombies kept on ganging up on me and I was forced to stay in the courtyard. I only found out later that you got through because you had the power to steal the souls of your enemies."

"I figured that it would be an incredibly awkward conversation to have," said Soma. He supposed that Mina was a good reference for how a normal person would fare inside Castlevania. Looking back, he wondered on how he managed to get through it at all. He was just a high school student with no special skills other than the Power of Dominance and extremely good balance, and yet he managed to become strong enough to run through the castle without even needing his souls half the time. Given the castle's track record, the untrained Soma shouldn't have even gotten past the entrance hall. Leon told him that of all the people who trekked through Castlevania, only Soma had neither experience nor training [1]. "That aside, how did you get into the Chapel?"

Mina sighed. "You didn't let me come with you, so I stayed in the courtyard until Hammer came along. I was scared of him at first, but since I didn't have anyone else to talk to, we ended up becoming friends. He lent me some guns and taught me how to fire them. It's illegal, but we were both afraid that the barrier might break."

"Did you just use that as an excuse to hold a gun?" asked Soma.

"Maybe," said Mina levelly. "Shooting was fun. We spent a long time giving zombies headshots before Hammer said that he was going to go deeper into the castle to scrounge for stuff to sell and eat. I didn't have anything else to do and I could help out, so I tagged along. We didn't trust the water and couldn't fly like you can, so we couldn't get everywhere, but we got pretty deep inside. Don't look at me like that. We had to go inside to get food, otherwise we'd starve. Arikado sometimes dropped by with supplies, but he only seemed to come when he remembered."

"I did wonder about what you ate when you were in there," said Soma, feeling guilty that he never asked or offered.

"We found that there were lots of places with hidden food inside the walls," said Mina. "We drank beer instead of water. Arikado brought barrels from time to time."

"You drank beer!?" repeated Soma. "But you're underage!"

"Of course I did," said Mina. "It's also not legal for me to shoot guns. Don't tell me that you trusted the water?"

"Um…" Soma did in fact drink out of any water source he could find.

"Did you know that there's a disease named after hikers that didn't properly boil their water?" said Mina. "And before there was good sanitation, everyone drank alcohol because the water wasn't safe."

"I think Kazuya said something like that." Soma vaguely recalled Kazuya telling him that he was writing a book on apocalypse survival because he was afraid that the world would come to ruin like his world. He wrote about how he and the other survivors of nuked Tokyo scraped a living and rebuilt society, but then found out that most of the solutions consisted of 'summon a demon to do it for us.' Kazuya said that society would collapse if it relied on one person keeping the demons in line, so he spent a lot of time researching how previous societies dealt with problems like sanitation, water production, agriculture, mass health care, postal service, taxes, and other problems that people in the modern age took for granted.

Kazuya had told him very seriously that he had to learn how to make alcohol because it was very important as a drink and an antibiotic. It was also why he kept a secret brewery and how he and Naoki kept on getting drunk over the weekends.

"Soma, did you drink the water?" asked Mina, worried.

Soma nodded. "I'm still healthy. Nothing bad happened to me. Do you think that the water was clean after all?"

"I hope so," said Mina. Then she looked up. "What about Celia's castle? What did you do then?"

"I had time to prepare for the trek, so I brought several gallons of water along with basic food supplies," said Soma. "My coat can hold lances, giant swords, an entire pantry, and a ton of potions. I didn't have my weapons with me at the time, so I could carry lots of water." Soma quickly realized that this wasn't the best thing to say to his not-girlfriend who always worried whenever he went through evil death castles.

"You didn't bring your weapons?" asked Mina, raising her voice. "You went into a death trap castle empty handed?!"

Soma turned red. "I sold them," he said in a very quiet voice, as if that would save him from Mina.

Mina coughed, as if she wasn't sure if she should yell or laugh. "You _sold_ them? Weren't they all super valuable and super dangerous weapons?"

"I had to pay for the plane ticket somehow," said Soma sheepishly. "No Mimic soul, remember? After the trek in Dracula's castle, I sold almost all the weapons and armor to pay for college. I had kept the really powerful weapons, but when I found out about Celia I sold most of the rest."

Mina looked worried. "Who did you sell them to?"

"Auctioned on the internet. I figured that LARP enthusiasts would appreciate them. I'm sure that all of them handled the deadly weapons responsibly."

"I doubt that," said Mina.

"Yeah, I was just desperate and deluding myself," said Soma. "But hey, world is saved, even if it probably would have been fine if I had just left it alone. And I got to see Russia."

Mina nodded, halfway scolding and sympathetic. "What about the ones you kept?"

"I still have a few," said Soma, seeking some sort of approval. "I didn't think it was safe to sell the ones that were probably cursed or the ones that were too good to give up."

"Then why didn't you take them with you?" said Mina. "You didn't have your souls. You could have at least brought weapons."

"Airport security," said Soma simply. "I didn't want to get into trouble with the law for bringing weapons onto an airplane, or even armor. I had to buy water and supplies in a supermarket because you can't bring food between countries. My only weapon was the biggest hunting knife that I could buy. And then I had to go through the wilderness to even get to the castle. That was almost as bad."

Mina nodded, satisfied. "I probably should learn more about survival instead of just fighting. You think that you can kill a giant monster with a whip sword, and then you find that you need to go across an entire desert before you even see one."

"Leon once told me that it used to be that the Belmonts trained only in fighting before Simon said that he almost died dozens of times because he kept on missing his jumps," agreed Soma. "And when Juste was trained, he realized that he barely knew how to survive outside of a town. Then Richter knew everything about fighting and survival, but nothing about normal life. There's always something that you forget to learn. You're training with Hammer and Yoko now, right?"

Mina nodded. "Are you wondering why?" she asked.

"I'm mostly wondering why you didn't start earlier," said Soma. "You knew that at least Japanese monsters existed, right? And you knew magic from before."

"My family lost the art of fighting yokai with magic years ago," said Mina. "We've gotten by with seals, wards, purification, and healing. I did wish that I knew battle magic in Castlevania, but the guns and support magic were more than enough. After Castlevania, I thought everything was over, so I didn't bother to learn how to fight. But when Celia attacked in the middle of the street, and Arikado told me that you almost became Dracula because of a doppelganger in my image, I realized that I would probably be targeted in the future. Or at the very least, I live in a world where a wandering monster could run at me and kill me for no reason. So I've been having lessons with Yoko ever since."

"Good to know," said Soma. He was terrified that someone might try to go after Mina like how Celia tricked him into almost becoming Dracula, so knowing that Mina could take care of herself was a weight off his shoulders. It was probably what Richter was thinking when he declared that he would train girls.

"Anyways, what's inside the vacuum bag? No, don't open it in here!"

Too late. Soma opened the bag, and a wave of heat blew out. Mina reeled backwards, but was otherwise unhurt. They got a glimpse of something yellow-hot and bright before Soma panicked and made the vacuum vanish.

"What was that?" both of them said in unison.

Soma gingerly made the vacuum appear. The bag was deceptively cool to touch. Soma opened it slowly, heating up the whole room.

"It's too bright to see," said Mina. "But whatever it is, it's hot and it isn't spilling out into the room. Is it some kind of incinerator?"

"You didn't have anything important on the floor, did you?" said Soma.

"I hope not," said Mina. "So the vacuum cleaner sucks things up and burns them. How is it not full of ashes?"

Soma and Mina looked at each other. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

X

"No, that was definitely not what I was thinking," said Soma.

"What else would you do with this?" said Mina, spearing a marshmallow on a very long stick and moving to the side of the vacuum. "You don't have any clear enemies at the moment."

"I don't think that making s'mores with an infernal vacuum cleaner is the most sanitary thing," said Soma.

"I would think that you would worry more about safety," said Mina, strategically placing a bucket of water.

"I can't get hurt by my souls," said Soma. "Otherwise I'd never use the power to make scythes and sickles randomly appear and fly around uncontrollably."

"You can do that?" said Mina.

"Yeah, but even if I can't get hurt by it, I can't control it," said Soma. "So don't ask me to use it to slice cakes. I have my giant axe soul for that."

"Doesn't the Mimic soul hurt?"

Soma shrugged. "You know what I mean. The only way I can get hurt is through my own stupidity."

"And we've gotten pretty good at that," said Mina.

"For sure," said Soma. Left unmentioned was the Devil soul that took bits of Soma's life, but that didn't count because that was in the description.

Before Mina could stop him, Soma stuck his head inside the vacuum cleaner's bag. Mina yanked him out. "Don't worry, I'm all right," said Soma, looking no worse for wear.

"What did you do that for!?" shouted Mina. "That was dangerous!"

"I told you, my souls can't hurt me," said Soma. "Don't touch me right now. There might be residual heat that I can't feel."

"What did you see?" asked Mina, curiosity overtaking her worry.

"Not much," said Soma. "It's very bright. All I could see was that it seems bigger on the inside. That probably explains where the ashes go. Want to stick the vacuum in water to see what happens?"

"Does it run on electricity?" asked Mina. "Careful, you might get shocked."

"I hope not," said Soma. "I mean, it runs on my evil magic soul power, but maybe that turns into electricity. Then again, my souls can't hurt me, and it's not like I haven't been shocked by walking Pinocchio/Astro Boy puppets before."

The inside of the vacuum was so hot that it evaporated the water when Soma ran it under the bathroom tap, so he decided to submerge it. Soma went to the baths alone this time, because Mina didn't have to be there this time and the experiment was minor enough to not involve Julius. He stuck it in cold water, and the entire bath turned to steam. He looked inside, and the vacuum was still as hot as ever.

"That's absurd," said Mina when Soma came back.

"It's true!" protested Soma.

"I know you're serious," said Mina. "That just doesn't make it any less weird. What was your idea?"

"Oh, right," said Soma. "I was thinking that it would be a great space heater. It gets cold up on the fourteenth floor."

"That seems extremely unsafe," said Mina.

"Yeah, I guess it is," said Soma. "S'mores it is, I guess."

X

Years later, Soma and the dozen other residents of Kazuya's boarding house huddled in the living room, warming themselves by the heat of Soma's vacuum cleaner. Kazuya had bought the house on the cheap, and it had neither insulation nor central heating. On cold nights, Soma used the Persephone soul to open a small portal to the dimension of fire where all the dirt was sucked up into. The residents had a lot of trouble finding the safe size for the hole in the bag. Too small, and the heat didn't extend far enough. Too big, and the floor would start to melt. In the end, they found that all of the safe temperatures where the floor wasn't hot enough to melt was too cool to extend to the reaches of the room, so they had shoved all the furniture into adjacent rooms, dumped the contents of the rain barrel into the vacuum to make steam, and waved fans around as a crude means of air circulation. "Stupid power outage," groaned Daisuke underneath his fort of blankets and couch cushions.

"We need a fireplace," said Other Tatsuya Suou, who, along with Naoki, was the one of the few who could stand the insane heat up close. Both of them were sitting next to the vacuum bag, fanning the heat away from the center.

"Too bad, you're stuck with me," said Soma, who was annoyed that he couldn't read or play video games that close to a large heat source. "Open fires in a wooden house are dangerous."

"And having a vacuum cleaner that opens to a dimension of eternal fire isn't?" said Aoi, Kazuya's wife. She was sharing a large blanket with Kazuya.

"At least we can make dinner," said Mina, who had speared everything Kazuya was going to make for dinner onto actual spears and toasted them over the dimension of fire. The sausages worked out great. The rice, not so much.

"Heating bill had better go down," grumbled Kazuya.

"You're not the one who has to be beaten to cough up the money whenever we're low," Soma grumbled back.

"And we don't have to worry about refrigeration," added Mina loudly. "The ice cream won't go bad."

"We can make snow forts!" said Ryouta.

"I think that hot food will do everyone some good," said Mina.

"I think so too," said Jun quickly, taking a bite of sausage. "This is really good!"

They ate their food, before they realized that Soma could only keep the soul active as long as he was awake. He tried to stay awake for everyone's sake, but he was really tired from a day of chasing Cave Trolls across a goat farm and fell asleep right there. Mina didn't let any of them wake him up.

"Can we have a fireplace now?" asked Other Tatsuya Suou, who was making a small fire in his hands with the power of the almighty sun god Apollo and trying not to unleash his full power and burn down the house. The result was that too many guys and girls were snuggling against him.

"Can we just set a chair on fire?" asked Daisuke.

"… Fine," said Aoi.

Thirty seconds later, Aoi shouted, "No, we're getting a fireplace! Daisuke Higawa, you are ten seconds away from eviction!"

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Only Soma and Mina were inexperienced and untrained before entering Castlevania: Let's look at the playable characters. All Belmonts are assumed to be trained. Sypha was sent to kill Dracula, implying that she has some experience. Grant is a pirate, a profession that requires a lot of fighting. Alucard worked for his father for a while and so did Hector. Maxim, Nathan, Reinhardt, and the Morris and Lecarde families all are trained as hunters. Shanoa and Albus were both trained, even if no one knows about them. Cornell is a werewolf who also trained in martial arts. Charlotte spent a lot of time learning magic if she isn't already trained as a hunter. Yoko works for the church as a witch. Not sure about the Pumpkin.

Henry, Carrie, and Maria are borderline cases. Henry had to be trained in some way to be able to shoot and reload a gun at all, and I presume that it's the same way with magic. I chose the backstory where Maria knew about her powers before going to Castlevania. In an earlier chapter, I did say in the notes that Maria found her powers when she came to Castlevania. Ignore that. Maria and Carrie had at the very least taught themselves to control their powers before going.

As for the unplayable characters who go through the castle (antagonists get a free pass): Morris and Hugh Baldwin are specifically said to be vampire hunters, as is Charlie Vincent. Vincent Dorin doesn't really move around much. Hammer was in the military and most likely had his gun with him. The Master Librarian lives in the castle by Dracula's leave. I wonder what happened to the guy. It would be interesting to see him interacting with all the other protagonists.

Soma, on the other hand, didn't know about his powers until he was dumped on Castlevania's doorstep. I doubt that he ever fought a life or death battle before. I kind of wonder how he got so good so fast.


	20. Chapter 20: Dracula (the book)

Disclaimer: I haven't played PoR and I only picked Jonathan/Charlotte because it was convenient.

Someone in the last chapter pointed out that Mina and Hammer couldn't have gotten to the Chapel because they didn't have the Flying Armor soul. I forgot about that. Maybe they made a parachute? Rope bridge?

In _Cyborg 009_ , the 004 cyborg, Albert Heinrich, had a fiancé named Hilda, so Hilda's surname is Heinrich.

I started this as chapter 19, before I got enough reviews saying that they didn't like the influx of new characters. This one introduces five of them, so this one became chapter 20.

This is not the chapter where Soma gets Dracula's powers. That one comes later.

Dracula (the book, not the person)

Soma really wasn't sure how long he could resist telling the people in front of him how ironic the whole situation was.

"My ancestor guided yours," said Rita Van Helsing, who was a sophomore in high school. "He knew everything about vampires. I should lead this time."

"Yes, but it was Mina Harker who fought off Dracula and guided them straight to him," said Matthew Harker, Tatsuya and Jun's roommate. "And Jonathan was the only one Dracula introduced himself to."

"My ancestor was corrupted by Dracula, and I must restore my family's honor!" shouted Stacey Wren, who was in her last year of high school and a descendant of Renfield on her mother's side.

"My ancestor was the first to actually stake a vampire," said Natsumi Holmwood, who was a high school junior.

"My ancestor actually killed Dracula!" shouted Peter Morris, who had just stared middle school.

"Um, well… I'm the most useful person here!" said Martin Seward, who was in his second year of college like Matthew but went to another school in America. "All right, I'm not. But since my ancestor didn't do as much, I should be leader so that I can honor him."

"If we're going off of that, then I should be leader because my ancestor did even less than yours," said Natsumi Holmwood.

Soma made a note to ask exactly how famous the Belmonts and Belnades were in the monster hunting community. Leon made it seem like they were well known, but of course he would say that of his descendants. Julius did say that Richter brought the family into hiding and none of the Belmonts had done much of note between him and Richter (other than a minor scandal involving Richter's grandson, ten buckets of machine lubricant, and a petticoat factory, as well as an entry in 'Top 100 Stupidest Bets of the 20th Century', featuring Lara Belmont, an ordinary bullwhip, a copy of Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark, and every chandelier in a certain opera house in Paris), but two hundred years wouldn't be enough to erase them from the records. Yoko said that the Belnades were better known as being powerful magic users than for killing Dracula.

Soma sighed. He had been kidnapped before by people who hated Dracula, but never dragged into one of their meetings.

"Since Soma's not arguing, let's make him the leader," said Rita Van Helsing out of the blue. If she couldn't be leader, then at least she could make someone else be leader.

"What?" said Soma.

"Let's put it to a vote," Rita continued. "You have to vote for someone other than yourself."

Soma voted for Rita, but he won. "But I don't want to be leader!" protested Soma.

"That's the best kind of leader," said Natsumi Holmwood.

"I don't even know what's going on," Soma added. "I barely even know who you are."

"I'm glad you asked," said Stacey Wren, standing up dramatically. "We're the Shadow Knights."

"No, we're the New Crusaders," said Rita Van Helsing.

"We're still fighting over a name," said Matthew Harker. "We kind of call ourselves the Team."

"That tells me nothing," said Soma. Actually, it did. Knowing that they didn't have a real name and that these kids could have a say in choosing one told him that they weren't part of a large organization like the Agency.

"Basically, we're a group of friends who went to the same school and fought off threats to our town," said Rita. "We all have some power that helps us fight."

"You know that I know magic," said Matthew Harker, levitating a book.

"I can make animals do my bidding," said Stacey Wren, making a mouse that Soma didn't notice do a backflip. She glared at Soma as if to dare him to mock her.

"That's actually a really useful power, and I'm not just saying that," said Soma, who was in fact sincere. After all, he did throw cats, crows, and bats at people.

"I'm very good with technology," said Martin Seward. "Don't laugh! I made a laser cannon!"

"I wasn't laughing," said Soma.

"I'm a ninja," said Natsumi Holmwood.

"Is it a good idea to tell me that?" asked Soma.

Natsumi shrugged. "I might be lying."

"I'm a sword wizard!" said Peter Morris. "My grandparents had this room full of weapons and spellbooks, and I taught myself how to fight!"

"And your grandparents let you use them?" asked Soma, eyeing the sword he was waving around. It was about the same quality as the weapons he had in his coat. Soma wondered where he got it from.

"Um… no, but they'd be happy to know that I'd be fighting monsters and protecting people!" said Peter. "And they'd be happy to know that I'll be safe because I have such strong weapons!" He opened up a book, and a bunch of maces came out.

"I don't have any powers, but I know everything about monsters," said Rita Van Helsing.

"Everything?" said Soma, raising an eyebrow.

"All right, absolutely everything would be ridiculous," said Rita. "But I know a lot about monsters."

Soma nodded. "So how did you find out about Dracula being here?"

"Rumors fly around," said Matthew Harker. "You won't believe the stuff people talk about. There was a cult in the basement of this apartment building. They were arrested for killing these girls, but when the cops caught them, they laughed and said they were too late. Their master was already resurrected."

Soma realized that his English pronunciation was horrible, and that he left in a real hurry on the night he was kidnapped by cultists in Julius's apartment. When he announced that he was not Dracula, it was a very crowded and loud room, so they might have misheard him as saying, "I am Dracula" instead of "I am not Dracula."

"Matthew asked me to do more research, and I found all this stuff on the internet," said Martin Seward. "You'd be surprised about what you can find on the internet. Turns out the tsuchinoko was discovered in the 1960's in Russia, but they couldn't tell the world because the guy who discovered it was on a secret mission."

Soma almost regretted that he couldn't prove the existence of the tsuchinoko without revealing that he found it in a castle made from dark magic inside a solar eclipse.

He stood up. "Matthew, I'm sorry, but if all you have is rumors and possibly photoshopped images on the internet, I can't waste my time with you. I thought you had more proof, but I can't go gallivanting with you after someone who might not exist. I have exams, too."

When Peter Morris and Rita Van Helsing protested, Matthew Harker said, "I understand. I can't force you to help us."

"Then why did you come?" asked Rita sharply.

"Well, last night…"

X

The evening earlier, Soma was jumping from rooftop to rooftop so that he could dodge the traffic coming back to the dorm from Julius's place. After dealing with the whole vampire thing, he didn't want to take his chances with dark alleyways. Soma didn't want to deal with rush hour foot traffic either, so he told Julius that he would fly home, but Julius vetoed that. "Trust me, people will notice," Julius had said. "An albino bat flying around the city would get every nature enthusiast out at night with video cameras. You can do it once or twice, but not every time."

"So can I jump from rooftop to rooftop?" asked Soma.

"That works," said Julius. "Parkour exists. Just don't double jump. I once had this guy follow me everywhere shouting 'TEACH ME YOUR SECRETS, MASTER!' at the top of his voice after he saw me climb a fire escape that way."

So then Soma climbed the stairs to the top floor of Julius's apartment and then hopped over to the next rooftop. Soma had pulled off harder runs in Castlevania, not even factoring the evil skeletons or lack thereof, but now that he was in the city he could appreciate how ridiculously agile he was. Never once did he slip or stumble, not even in the reservoirs. He could crouch on ledges without overbalancing. Even if he fell, he survived jumping from the top of a tower without hurting himself. Most people would be jealous of how high or far he could jump. It reminded him of when he had to take gym class. He always thought that no one else was trying when they did long jumps. He wasn't interested in gymnastics, but he probably could have won tournaments if he had joined a team.

Soma was wondering how every single person in Castlevania was athletic enough to get through the castle at all when he crashed into a guy on a broomstick in midair.

They managed to land on a well lit rooftop, Soma breaking the other person's fall. The guy yelled what were probably English or French curse words at Soma (he wasn't very good with any language except for Spanish, Japanese, Latin, and Romanian. Actually, Soma was a pretty good polyglot). When he looked up and saw Soma, he said something else that was probably a curse word and tried to hide his face. "You didn't see anything!" he said in bad Japanese.

"Yes, I did," said Soma. "Are you a witch? I've never met a male witch."

"No!" said the guy, edging towards the edge of the roof.

"It's fine," said Soma, raising his hands. "I know magic, too." He made a cat appear from nothing.

The guy stopped covering his face and stared at the cat. "Who are you?" Now that he wasn't afraid that someone might find his secret, his Japanese was much better. "How did you do that?"

"I'm just a guy with magic powers," said Soma. After Chihiro attacked him for being a vampire, Soma realized that telling people about the dark nature of his powers might get him targeted before he could explain. "I don't mean any harm."

"I'm Matthew," said the guy. "Matthew Harker."

"Aren't you Tatsuya and Jun's roommate?" asked Soma. A name like Harker stuck in his memory. "You're the American transfer student. I'm Soma Cruz, the Spanish transfer student."

"Yeah, you're the guy who bet that you could hold your breath longer than Michelle," said Matthew. Soma got a good look at the broom he was holding. It was a sturdy looking old fashioned one that his grandmother might use, with the addition of a stiff looking couch cushion duct taped to the center and a bunch of bungee cords strapped on. Matthew turned the broom over so that it was parallel to the ground and let go. It hovered in midair, and Matthew straddled it by sitting on the cushion and grabbing the broom with his knees. He then secured himself with the cords. "Fine. I'm a witch. Or warlock."

"Interesting," said Soma. "I've never met a witch that could ride a broomstick."

Matthew turned red. "I might not be a real witch, just someone with magic. I got it from one of my ancestors. Have you ever read the book _Dracula_? It's true. All of it is true."

Soma had read it for reference after going through Castlevania. Yoko told him that Stoker was commissioned to record the events of the story. When Stoker realized that it would be a very interesting novel, the people involved allowed him to publish it, on the condition that Stoker had to change a lot of it. Everyone involved received a copy of the original, but apparently, Matthew didn't read that version.

To protect the Belmonts and their relatives, Stoker cut mentions of John Morris, Eric Lecarde, the Vampire Killer, the fact that Quincey was a widower who was nervous that Lucy might not like his young son John, as well as the fact that he used the Vampire Killer alongside his knife. This was impossible without cutting out all of Quincey Morris's entries.

Jonathan Harker also asked Stoker to not tell about how he managed to escape Castlevania because he thought that no one would believe that someone could escape with just a cross that a villager gave him that turned into a boomerang. When Soma asked how the untrained Jonathan Harker could escape from Castlevania when Dracula didn't want him to escape, Yoko said that Jonathan Harker bypassed most of the traps by wall climbing, and that unlike the Belmonts, Jonathan was free to roam a good part of the castle without monsters attacking him for over a month before he escaped. Not only did this mean that he had a fairly accurate mental map of the place, this also meant that he was free to explore the Keep.

And, of course, the Keep was where all the best weapons were kept. Jonathan managed to evade all the strong monsters, and all the weak monsters didn't stand a chance against Isaac's magical anachronistic laser cannon. [1]

Soma had thought that Renfield must have had some sort of relationship with Dracula or the Belmonts that was cut to protect them, but Yoko said that no one actually knew what was going on with him or why Dracula chose to enslave him. Their best guess was that Renfield was another solicitor like Jonathan, and Jonathan would have ended up mad like him had he not escaped.

When Soma asked about how garlic flowers apparently repelled Dracula, Yoko said that garlic was only sometimes effective against certain types of undead, but it wasn't well known that garlic plants grown with Holy Water were extremely effective against almost all creatures of the night. That was why Van Helsing had to import the garlic instead of just going to the market. However, Dracula's power was so great that holy garlic simply vanished in his presence. Stoker thought that was ridiculous, so he added that Lucy's mother removed the garlic from the room when Van Helsing had in fact told her that the garlic was for her health beforehand. Stoker also cut out the part where Castlevania collapsed upon Dracula's death, because he didn't think that anyone would believe him. [2]

Otherwise, it was pretty much the same. Soma privately wondered if Dracula really did cook all of Jonathan's meals or if he just made it appear from nowhere. The vision of Dracula in his black opera cape making Jonathan an omelette made Soma giggle a bit. The vision of Dracula in a maid outfit making Jonathan pot roast made him unable to breathe.

"Yeah, I read it," said Soma very seriously. "Cover to cover."

Matthew sighed. "Good, I don't have to explain that Hollywood got the book wrong. Tons of people think they know the book just by watching the movies. I'm descended from Jonathan and Mina Harker. As you know, Mina Harker was kind of turned into a vampire but not really. And since you read the book, you know that she wasn't in love with Dracula."

In reality, none of Soma's friends had any idea what had happened with Mina Harker (it was weird using the name of his friend for a total stranger. That was probably how the people of Sumaru City felt). It was pretty apparent that she was in the process of being turned into a vampire but never fully became one, but no one was sure if killing Dracula released the curse or if someone just knew the Sanctuary spell [3]. That was all right and no one particularly cared which one was true. The real puzzle was the whole mind link. The others thought that it had something to do with Dominance, since Arikado told Soma that turning someone into a vampire was like killing them and leaving their soul ripe for picking, but Soma said that he could only Dominate something once it was dead and you can't just halfway take someone's soul. They figured that holding half of someone's soul to track them down was just a Dracula thing and solved the problem by carefully ignoring it. "I never really got that part," said Soma truthfully. "She drank Dracula's blood, right?"

"Yeah… so this didn't make it into the book, but she and some of her kids had these strange powers," said Matthew. "They're not always the same kind of powers, and they're not quite what you would call standard vampire powers. All of the descendants have a small chance of getting those powers, and it's never guaranteed if you're going to get them or not. They manifest on the sixteenth birthday. My father didn't have them, but my grandfather and my cousin Madeline had them. We're not supposed to be told until we get them, but Grandad lives in Albuquerque and Madeline lives in Ottawa, so I was on my own for the longest time. I thought I was a witch when I woke up as a black cat one day. Madeline was lucky when Grandad happened to visit on her 16th birthday."

Soma had never heard of former vampires having powers (Stella and Loretta had turned out completely normal, but given that they were already magical they might have chalked any strangeness to that), but he figured that it was just another 'Dracula Thing'. Besides, the Harkers would be afraid to tell Stoker about their powers in fear of staking. "So why do you have a broom?"

"I thought I was a witch, so I tried riding brooms, and it somehow worked," said Matthew. "I'm not sure if they're just an emotional crutch or if I really do need them, though. Vampires can fly without them, right?"

"How should I know?" said Soma. As far as he knew, vampires couldn't fly without transforming.

"Not sure why I can make fireballs appear, though," said Matthew. "Usually they come in threes, but sometimes five come out. Normally, my powers can do lots of things, but they almost never do what I want them to do. But fireballs, broom flying, and turning into a cat are easy."

Matthew gave Soma a good look. "You're a magic user too, aren't you? What can you do?"

Soma's hands filled with knives using the Evil Butcher soul. "I can make things appear from nothing," he said, trying to look cool without showing how hard it was to keep several knives between your fingers. "I can only make a few types of things, though. Cats, cream pies, curry, and some other stuff."

"And how did you get that power?" asked Matthew. "Got it from your parents? Met someone who gave you a lucky charm? Chosen One? Actually an orphan descended from an ancient race of wizards?"

"It turned up one day, actually," said Soma. "I was being attacked by monsters, and then suddenly I could make spears appear." This wasn't a lie, Soma told himself. He just didn't tell him that he stabbed a flying skeleton to death with a pocketknife and then devoured its soul in between.

Matthew looked up and down at Soma. "Hey… my friends and I really need your help. You see, we want to take down Dracula."

X

"I couldn't just leave you when you said that," said Soma. "I thought you had his location and everything pinpointed and you just needed extra muscle."

"Coward," said Peter Morris.

"Do you just say that whenever someone disagrees with you?" asked Soma. "I'm not saying that I wouldn't be willing to fight. I just don't have the time to go searching with you." He paused. "How do you have the time?"

"I do my homework as soon as I get it," said Matthew.

"Winter break," everyone else said in unison. "You might not get it in Japan," added Rita Van Helsing. "It's because we have Chris-"

"Yes, I know what winter break is," said Soma. "I lived in Spain for half my life. My surname is Cruz. That's Cruz with a z; I'm not related to Tom Cruise." And before any of them could say the next words, he said, "And don't tell me, 'Oh, your Japanese is so good!'"

"I was actually going to ask you how good my Spanish was," said Rita.

"Ask me later," said Soma. Then he looked at the group in front of him. Matthew would know Japanese from living in Japan, and he was sure that American schools taught Japanese. But he doubted that everyone in this group would have the same level of fluency, especially the middle school aged Peter. "How are you all speaking such good Japanese, anyways?"

"Translation spell, coupled with a bit of telepathy," said Matthew. "As long as it's a language or word I know, it gets translated to people in my general vicinity."

Soma accepted this. He couldn't go and say that it was ridiculous, since he knew modern and ancient Romanian (if Romanian was indeed the name of the language from back then) from his past life as a vampiric overlord/tactician. "All right then. If I have a lead, I'll drop a note off at your dorm," he said. "Bye now."

X

"The book actually happened?" said Mina over a bowl of ramen. Earlier, Soma had texted everyone about these kids, the fact that they were the descendants of the characters from Dracula, and that they were hunting him in case they accidentally let slip that he was Dracula. Daisuke had wondered how he got his number. Mina had asked to discuss it in person.

"Julius told me that," said Soma, slurping his bowl. "It's not all true, just the basic plot. You can ask him for more details. Have you read the book?"

"I picked it up after we were trapped in Castlevania, but I figured after the first chapters that it wasn't true," said Mina. "I couldn't believe that it was the same castle. Where were the zombies and the killer mermen?"

"Did you see the movies?" asked Soma, worrying a bit.

"Just the parodies," said Mina. Soma tensed again. "But after seeing the castle, I'm taking those with a grain of salt, too."

Soma explained as best he could the basic plot of _Dracula_. "So there's a solicitor named Jonathan Harker, who goes to Dracula's castle because Dracula is moving to England for some reason and needs a solicitor. I don't know what a solicitor does, but apparently you need one if you want to move to England. Jonathan is married to a woman named Mina, who is best friends with a girl named Lucy. Three different men propose to Lucy on the same day: Doctor John Seward, Quincey Morris of the Morris branch of the Belmonts and the then wielder of the Vampire Killer, and Arthur Holmwood. She gets engaged to Arthur. Also, Doctor Seward is the head of an asylum which contains Renfield, a man who was somehow enslaved by Dracula. I don't know how Dracula did it in real life. Doctor Seward was once the apprentice of another doctor named Abraham Van Helsing."

"Isn't there a manga called Hellsing?" asked Mina. "And I've heard of Van Helsing before."

"Yes, Van Helsing is probably the second most famous person, after Dracula," said Soma. "He's the second most famous vampire hunter with the first name of Abraham. Even though the other one was more famous for his work outside of vampire hunting."

"Who's first?" asked Mina.

"Abraham Lincoln," said Soma. "All right, so Dracula holds Jonathan prisoner but Jonathan escapes. So then Lucy becomes engaged to Arthur, and still remains good friends with Quincey and Dr. Seward. The book doesn't mention that Quincey's two year old son John was there most of the time and that Quincey was a widower, because the Morris family requested safety in secrecy while still taking credit."

"That seems counterintuitive," said Mina.

"I don't know why they didn't just strike Quincey out of the book," said Soma. "They already cut out all of his good parts. Leon said that Quincey was absent for stretches of the book because he was busy killing and angsting about killing child vampires. The Lecarde family was happy to have Eric struck from the book."

"Who is Eric?" asked Mina.

"He's a member of the Lecarde family, who are descendants of the Belmonts," said Soma. "During WW1, he and John went on another quest that resulted in them killing Dracula."

"Did Eric do much during the book?" asked Mina.

"Not really," said Soma. "He was five at the time. Eric's parents had to go do a job somewhere and left him with Quincey. I guess it was really easy to just exclude him." He took a deep breath. "Anyways, Dracula moves into England, and Lucy is his first victim. Only Jonathan has actually met him at that point, and he never formally introduces himself to anyone else. He keeps coming back to bite Lucy for more blood, and she falls ill. Mina Harker takes care of her. Dr. Seward worries about her, and he calls in Van Helsing to look at her. Van Helsing suspects that she's being attacked by a vampire but keeps that to himself, so he tells her that covering her room in garlic will help her (it has to be garlic grown with Holy Water) and gets the three suitors to give her blood. She dies and comes back as a vampire. By the way, this is before blood clotting was known as a problem, so it's theorized that Lucy died because she received blood from three different men without testing for compatibility. It makes a bit more sense than Dracula coming back for the same person over and over when there's an entire town full of people."

"If I were a vampiric overlord and I had the power to turn people into undead slaves, I'd try to turn as many people as possible," said Mina. "But then again, too many vampires would destroy the human population, leaving the vampires to starve."

"Actually, that's a good point," said Soma. "I did think that Dracula would want more souls, but blood would be the priority. So Lucy dies and comes back as a vampire that attacks small children. The book just has her drink from them and they're all right before there's any lasting damage, but she really did turn them into vampires and Quincey hung around so that he could take care of them (the book says that Quincey was with Arthur, who moved back home because he was so upset about Lucy's death). The book just has Van Helsing suspect that Lucy is the one who's attacking the kids and confirms it when he enters her tomb, but they really found out when when she tried to bite John when he was playing with Eric. Eric recognized and fended her off long enough to save John (he was five, but Lucy had just become a vampire and was afraid of any new pain), and then told Quincey. So then Van Helsing finally tells them that Lucy is a vampire and gets Arthur to stake her. And cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic."

"And tear off her ears?" asked Mina.

"Ah, I saw that movie, too," said Soma. "It was hilarious. Quincey actually had a fight with Van Helsing over whether to stake her and cut her head off or just whip her repeatedly."

"I mean, Dracula kept coming back," said Mina. "How many times was he whipped with the Vampire Killer, and it took over five hundred years for it to take?"

"Let's see, Trevor was once, Christopher and Simon got two turns each, then Richter, and Quincey, John, and Jonathan, and now Julius, so ten times?" said Soma. "Juste doesn't count, since he only killed a shade. Then again, Dracula is a soul stealing abomination with Death on his side. Most vampires aren't like that."

"So what did they do in the end?" asked Mina.

"They had Arthur stake her, and Quincey stood next to him in case she jumped at him, since it's really hard to whip someone who is lying inside a coffin," said Soma. "Quincey had his fun the night before, anyways. Van Helsing tried to repel Lucy with a cross, but it didn't work. Quincey grabbed it out of his hands and threw it at her. Apparently, Van Helsing was livid."

"How did Van Helsing feel about being upstaged by Quincey?" asked Mina.

"Van Helsing was pretty important, actually," said Soma. "He was the one who diagnosed Lucy, tried to treat her, and had the initiative to stake her. Quincey knew about Dracula from stories, but he had no idea that Dracula was in England for a while. You see, Jonathan was very shell shocked after coming back from Romania, so he didn't get much of a chance to tell anyone. Mina—not you, Mina Harker—translated his diary from shorthand, and then gave it to Van Helsing so that he could help him recover from his nerves. In the novel, Van Helsing deduced from the journal that Dracula was a vampire, but in reality Quincey heard Mina—Harker mention the name Dracula and pressed her for more information. He knew about Dracula from his grandmother, who was Richter's niece."

"That sounds very anticlimactic," said Mina.

"But it does explain a bit," said Soma. "The book just has Van Helsing speculate that Dracula is probably Vlad the Impaler going by his name without any real evidence. Knowing that Quincey knew about him from his family makes more sense. Although I don't know how the Belmonts thought that Dracula was Vlad the Impaler in the first place."

"Where's Renfield in all this?"

"He was in the asylum, just hanging around," said Soma. "I didn't really get what was happening with Renfield, other than that Dracula was controlling him against his will and that it took three quarters of the book for them to figure it out. Renfield isn't his real name. Yoko said that Renfield is the only person in the book who had his name changed (except for Dracula being Mathias Cronqvist, but they had no way of knowing that). Stoker was worried that Renfield's kids would be upset to have their father immortalized as a madman. Even if in the end he attacked Dracula when he was trying to drink from Mina Harker."

Mina opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. "I would say that it is a good moment of redemption, but since now we associate Renfield with 'imbecile insane slave', I'd say it's a good thing that it's changed. How did he control Renfield?"

"I have no idea," said Soma. "Everyone thinks that he used hypnosis, but if Dracula had that power, then one of us would have heard about it. They'd mention precautions. Even if they wouldn't tell me because then Dracula can access my memories, they'd tell you because you're with me a lot."

"Sure," said Mina. "What happened next?"

"Dracula drank Mina—Harkers's blood and then forced her to drink his, which somehow made it so that she would become under his control eventually, and she would turn into a vampire then," said Soma. "We really don't know how he did it. It just happened."

"Probably has something to do with Dominance," said Mina.

"That just brings up more questions," said Soma. "I can only take the souls of things once they're dead. Arikado said that it's possible to take the souls of vampirized humans, but I don't know how Dracula could have taken Mina's soul without killing her, and if he did how she managed to keep her own will without her soul. And you can't just take a part of a soul."

"What about Leon?" asked Mina. "A witch split his soul."

"That might be it," said Soma. "Anyways, the hunters ran around looking for places where Dracula might be by destroying his lairs. They previously established that Dracula can only sleep on earth from his native land and he imported boxes of soil and spread them across England as sleeping places, but he actually called up monsters and they put them down. And then they chased him to Romania and killed a bunch of monsters. Stoker cut out most of the fights because they were basically just Quincey killing them or the others using the prototype squirt gun full of Holy Water."

"Did they bring along John and Eric?" asked Mina.

"They had to, unfortunately," said Soma. "They had to hurry, and they didn't trust anyone with the kids, so they brought them along. Quincey left them with the Belmonts when they got to Romania."

"So they knew where the Belmonts live?" asked Mina.

"No, Quincey went alone," said Soma. "He took the secret to his grave. Quincey killed Dracula with a knife (he actually used the Vampire Killer and a throwing knife) but died shortly afterwards from the battle. That's the end of the story."

Mina whistled. "You have a really good memory."

"Oh, and the Harkers had a son named Quincey a year later, and he wasn't Dracula's son because he was born over nine months after his death," said Soma. "That's the end of the book."

"What happened to John and Eric?" asked Mina.

"The group spent a long time in the area looking for the Belmont family, but they couldn't find anything because they were so well hidden," said Soma. "They eventually gave up and returned home. The kids were all right. One of the Belmonts brought John and Eric back to their homes, which the group didn't find out until they went to America to break the news to his family."

"And now the descendants of those characters are looking for Dracula's reincarnation?" asked Mina.

"They think he was resurrected, actually," said Soma. "I don't know how they plan on finding me."

"And what are you going to do about this?" asked Mina. "Are you going to come clean?"

"Why would I do that?" asked Soma.

"Because if you don't, then if they find out, they'll assume that you deceived them by not telling them," said Mina. "If you don't tell them, you can't control what they know about you. Any protests will but cut down with accusations that you might not be able to counter."

"Ah," said Soma, waving his chopsticks. "That's the thing. They don't have to know. If they're led on a wild goose chase, they'll give up."

"You haven't done a very good job of hiding," said Mina. "How many cults have tracked you down?"

"Lost count," said Soma without thinking. "Mina, I… I don't know how I can break it to them. And I don't know how they'll react. We've already had an entire meeting where I didn't say anything. If I came and told them now, they'll think that I set up an ambush and attack me."

Mina nodded uncertainly. "I'm sure that if you tell them, they'll understand."

Soma nodded, not really agreeing but unwilling to argue. "Maybe we should find someone else to talk to."

So they decided to go to Julius's place. "Does Julius even have a job?" Mina wondered on the way there. "He's never doing anything when we go to his apartment."

"Yes, he's a vampire hunter," said Soma. "But yeah, I don't remember him ever doing any work outside beating me up and running around in Celia's castle."

"Julius isn't a layabout," said Leon firmly.

"I never said that," said Soma.

"Never said what?" asked Mina.

"I said that," said Leon.

Soma did a double take. Leon was floating right next to him. A lifetime of not fitting in as the intimidating half-Japanese half-Spanish kid with white hair and a cold attitude made Soma not care about being seen as strange in public. "Leon!? What are you doing here!?"

"I get bored sometimes," said Leon. "I love Julius, but I can't spend every moment with him. And no one likes to know that someone is invisibly watching them at all times. I wander around and watch people."

"Hello, Leon," said Mina, facing where Soma was facing.

"Hello, Mina," said Leon, and Soma relayed that.

"How long have you been standing there?" asked Soma warily.

"Since you ordered your ramen," said Leon. Soma relayed that to Mina.

"Why didn't you say anything?" asked Soma.

"Who am I to interrupt a romantic outing?" retorted Leon. "I remember taking long walks in the woods with Sara. And deliberately getting lost so we could spend time with each other. And then we spent over a week in the woods because we somehow wandered into…"

Soma cleared his throat and told Mina that he just didn't hear Leon over the chatter in the shop. "Anyways, what do you think about these kids? Should I come clean, or let them guess?"

Leon sighed. "I can't say which one is better. Not everyone is going to react the same way. If I were in their shoes and you told me that you were Dracula's reincarnation, I would suspect that you really are up to something. I wouldn't attack you right away, but I would spy on you until I found proof of your wrongdoings."

"Not to mention that they would waste a trip to Japan if it turned out that nothing was wrong," Mina added after Soma relayed Leon's words.

"But I haven't done anything wrong," said Soma. "Besides, well, blowing up people's drinks. But that doesn't count. I can just wait until they have to go back."

"No, you can't," said Mina. "Matthew lives in your dorm. If he finds anything suspicious about you, then he'll call the others over."

"I've went a year without anyone finding out that I'm Dracula," said Soma. "Cults don't count."

"Yes, but that was a year you went without telling anyone about your powers," said Mina. "It's different if they already know about them. They'll ask how you got them, and if you say you don't know, they'll try to experiment and find out."

"I think that it's just you who's like that," said Soma.

"Not to mention that Matthew will rub shoulders with people who know that you're Dracula, and they're liable to slip up," said Mina. "Remember how we have 'weirdest experience' contests in the SSS? Ginko and her friends are winning, but someone's bound to mention the soul eating reincarnation of Count Dracula."

"Or I would suspect you until I found the culprit behind whatever case was going on," said Leon.

"Wait, what?" said Soma.

"What did he say?" asked Mina.

"He said that he'd suspect me until he caught the culprit," said Soma. "What do you mean by that?"

Leon blinked. "Well, most of my hunting excursions involved hanging around places where a mysterious monster was killing them or their crops. Don't laugh. Crops are a farmer's lifeblood. I would have to track down that monster, which might have been a villager in disguise. If I found that someone was actually a vampire or a werewolf or something, I would suspect them until I found proof that they are innocent."

Soma relayed that to Mina, and added, "I have an idea."

Mina sighed. "Don't tell me. You're going to make a decoy that will claim to be Dracula, so you can help them defeat it and then get them to leave?"

"That's even better," said Soma. "I was thinking that I could terrorize a farmhouse somewhere and fake my death. But your idea is better."

"Soma, you're not going to frame an innocent person," said Mina, her voice rising with a warning tone.

"Of course not," said Soma. "I can use a doppelganger, find a place that makes a convincing creepy hideout, tell Matthew that I found Dracula, forge some evidence, and then have them kill the doppelganger."

"No, that isn't going to help," said Mina. "If you're living in close quarters with someone who wants to kill Dracula, you're never going to have a moment's peace. And if he finds out, he'll be furious and actually try to kill you. He won't manage it, but it'll be much harder to calm him down. If you tell him now, he'll understand."

"All right, so I'll tell Matthew," said Soma. "I'll see if he's reasonable."

Mina was satisfied at this. "I'll come with you as a character witness."

So then they set off for the dorm. But first, Mina had to use the bathroom.

"Soma, you said that the boy was named Peter Morris?" said Leon while they were waiting. "Are you sure that he's really Quincey's descendant and not just someone who happens to have the same surname?"

"He said he's descended from Quincey Morris," said Soma. "I'm not sure if he's telling the truth, making it up, or if he's just mistaken."

"What does he look like?" asked Leon.

Soma described Peter. "Yes, that's Arthur's son, all right," said Leon. "He is one of Quincey's descendants. And one of mine, too."

"That means that he has to be John and Jonathan's descendant," said Soma. "Quincey and John only had one son each, right?"

Leon nodded. "Jonathan didn't overuse the whip, so he lived a very long time. He had several children with Charlotte Aulin. He also forbade them from touching the whip even though he trained all of them. Understandable, given what happened to John and Quincey. If I remember correctly, Peter's grandfather Joseph (Jonathan's grandson) married Leila Ricardo, who was Loretta Lecarde's granddaughter. Joseph was the last person in the Morris clan to be a vampire hunter, and he didn't want to pass the trade on to his son Arthur. Arthur was born in the May of the year that Mathias died for good, so Joseph thought that the war against the darkness was over this time. Whenever anyone says that, that always means that Mathias will come back."

"Ahem," said Soma, tapping his foot.

Leon shrugged, nonplussed. "Since then, the Morrises retired from monster hunting. I only found out that Peter was hunting monsters when you told me."

"How do you know all this?" asked Soma.

"I try to keep track of as many people in the family as I can," said Leon. "I know that it's impossible to know everything about my millions of descendants, but at the very least I want to know about the Morrises. And the Aulins. And the Lecardes. And the Belnades. And the Fernandezes. And Schneiders. And the-"

"I get it, you have a lot of descendants," said Soma. "What d o you think about Peter, from what you've heard?"

"He isn't very good with math and he frustrates easily, and he doesn't like doing things that are hard for him," said Leon. "He should be taught that you can't duck out of everything you don't like. I think that he's looking at monster hunting as something for fun. If you asked him, he would say that he's serious and he doesn't think of it as a game, but I believe that he thinks of it the same way sports players treat their tournaments. It's serious, but it's still a game."

"I do wonder what he's playing at, with a sword like that," said Soma.

Leon blinked. "What was that?"

"Peter was carrying around these swords and books," said Soma. "I'd say that they're the same quality as mine. Do you think they belonged to his great great grandparents? Jonathan, Charlotte, and Loretta?"

Leon's face darkened. "I believe that they might be," he said.

"Is that bad?"

"He shouldn't be allowed have such powerful weapons yet," said Leon. "It's not because he might hurt himself with them. It's because he shouldn't take for granted that he can kill anything with them with no effort or training. When we trained our hunters, we did start from around the age of seven or so, but we never gave them the whip until they were ready. They were taught to rely on their own strength and skill, and only after they could kill a zombie with just a length of rotten rope were they allowed to use the Vampire Killer. In retrospect, the sheer power disparity might be the reason why we have such a bad track record with horses. The idea was that the hunters wouldn't think that just because they had the whip that they were invincible."

"But wouldn't they be even cockier with the whip?" said Soma. "They'd say that they were fine without it, and then they think that they're invincible with it?"

"Well, there was that," said Leon. "That's why we always made sure that the wielders had a healthy fear."

"What about Maria and Carrie?" asked Soma. "Weren't they twelve when they faced Dracula? He's their age, and Julius said that Maria just found her powers like Peter did. Oh, wait… Matthew said that they all started when he was sixteen. He's what, nineteen, twenty now? Peter was something like eight or nine."

"Soma, I'm over a thousand years old," said Leon. "Everyone looks young to me. Age doesn't matter to me. But Carrie and Maria are different from Peter. Carrie had to train to make her fireballs more than just hot air. Maria had the power of the gods given to her, but she learned very quickly that she couldn't just run in with no plan and expect to be all right. She had to be saved by Richter, after all. Both girls fought against enemies that were much stronger than them, so they were forced to grow and adapt. They knew that they had great powers, but they also knew that they weren't invincible because of them. I hope that Peter learned that lesson already. Have you ever seen him fight before?"

Soma shook his head.

"Next time you see him fight, see what he does. Check his stance and his movements, and see if he's trained or not. At the very least, he should look like he practices. If he doesn't, tell him that he should learn that having a powerful weapon does not excuse him from training."

Soma nodded. "Would you think the same if he were older? Like my age?"

Leon nodded. "Adults have a better sense of their mortality than children do, and generally avoid danger, but no matter how old someone is, they can always fall into the trap of thinking that they're all right just because they have a powerful weapon. You need experience and temperance before you should have that kind of power." Leon shrugged. "My point is that if you're to be a hunter, you need to understand the strengths and limits of you and your weapons. You need to understand that your greatest asset is yourself, but also that you're not so strong that you don't need any weapons. You also need to understand the limits of your weaponry, but also that you need them to live."

"So basically, if you're going to be a fighter, you need to know how strong you are," said Soma. "Or how weak you are."

"And you also have to know that you're facing very strong enemies," added Leon. "You need a lot of courage to know your limits and still fight."

"I'm impressed," said Soma.

"I'm back," said Mina.

"You were gone a long time," said Soma.

"I really had to go," said Mina.

"And that's all we're going to say," said Soma.

X

No one answered the door to Matthew, Tatsuya, and Jun's room, so they decided to go to Soma's room to figure out what to say. You couldn't just tell someone that you're the reincarnation of the evil vampire king without expecting some violence.

However, when Soma opened the door, he found that it had been broken into. Drawers and closets were opened. The floor was a mess. Bedsheets were ripped. The window was open. And six people were scrambling to hide behind nearby objects.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?!" roared Soma.

Rita Van Helsing shoved a cross in Soma's face, but it wasn't blessed, so Soma just slapped it away. "All right, get out."

"I shouldn't have trusted you," said Matthew in a low, growling voice.

"Easy," said Soma, raising his hands. "I didn't want to tell you before. But I guess you know now."

"That's right," said Stacey Wren, raising her whip.

"Your stance is very good," said Leon, knowing that no one could hear him.

Mina moved into the room and stood in front of Soma. "Let's not jump to conclusions," she said. "I swear on the names of all of the gods that I haven't been brainwashed. But if you want to kill Soma, you'll have to deal with me."

"It was in your diary," said Martin Seward. "How much more conclusive can you get?"

Soma whistled. "So I guess your Spanish is pretty good after all, Rita."

"What?" said Rita Van Helsing. "Matthew's the one who read your diary."

Matthew blinked in confusion. "It was in plain Japanese," he said.

There was an awkward pause. "Are you sure you had the right diary?" asked Mina.

"I'm multilingual and I intend to stay that way, so I try to write my personal records in the language that isn't the national language of the country that I'm in," said Soma. "When I'm in Spain, I write in Japanese. When I'm in Japan, I write in Spanish. And I got that diary at the start of this year."

Matthew looked down at a black book and opened it up. "Whoops," he said. "It says Naoki Kashima. So I guess you're not a demon. Sorry."

Everyone relaxed.

Mina nudged Soma. "Go on," she said. "Tell them. It's a good time."

"So we should wait for Kashima, then," said Rita. "Soma, when does-"

"I'm Dracula," Soma said.

Everyone stared at him. Rita's jaw dropped. Peter looked like he wasn't paying attention and was wondering why they were so quiet. Martin laughed before realizing that he was serious. "What did you say?" said Natsumi.

"I'm Dracula," Soma repeated. "Before you try to kill me-"

Matthew launched five fireballs at Soma, who ducked.

"I said, before you try to kill me, hear me out," said Soma irritably.

"Get out of my friend's body, you monster!" shouted Matthew, but Mina tackled him to the ground and held him in a headlock.

"Perhaps you should have worded that a bit better," said Leon. Soma rolled his eyes at this comment, which just made Matthew angrier.

"Trying to kill someone who's being possessed isn't the best way to save the victim," Rita remarked, and Mina agreed. "Let's try an exorcism. I have a bottle of Holy Water here somewhere…"

"I am not being possessed," said Soma, raising his hands so that they could see that he wasn't holding anything. "Before you try to kill me, hear me out."

"Why should we?" said Rita Van Helsing, surreptitiously taking out a water pistol.

"Because you could be convicted of first degree murder if I die," said Soma.

"Good of a point as any," said Stacey Wren, lowering her whip. Leon pointed out to Soma that from that angle, she could still hit him.

"I'm not being possessed by Dracula," Soma repeated. "I'm his reincarnation. I have some of his powers and memories, but I am my own person."

"And why should we believe you?" asked Rita Van Helsing.

"I have no desire to destroy the world," said Soma. "If I wanted-"

"No, why should we believe that you're Dracula's reincarnation?" said Rita. "Do you have any proof?"

Both Soma and Mina were speechless. Neither of them had anticipated this. "Soma, how did you find out that you were Dracula's reincarnation?" asked Mina.

"I got his memories," said Soma. "But I can't prove that."

"How did you prove it to everyone else?" asked Mina.

"A knew—I'm using initials so that these people can't look them up—about it before I did and I'm guessing it had something to do with dark magic, J knew because he already knew Dracula from before and could see the similarities, and I don't know how Celia found out," said Soma. "Everyone else who knows was told by either them or me. Also, Celia died in another country, so don't bother looking for her."

"So only people with some sort of relationship with Dracula could actually prove it," said Mina. "And H, Y, and I (myself, not someone named Ivan) all trusted A to tell the truth because he actually knew what was going on."

"And none of you think that I'm a reliable source of information at the moment," said Soma. "The other people I told believed me because they didn't have a reason to doubt it. Well, D did, but that had more to do with the existence of magic than anything else."

"We need to know without a doubt," said Rita Van Helsing. "If you weren't Dracula and we thought you were, then we'd stake an innocent person and leave the real one to kill more people."

"Let's not do any staking," said Mina.

"You can show us your fangs," said Peter, as if this was obvious.

"My canines are just as normal as anyone else's," said Soma.

"We can check trivia," said Rita. "When were you born?"

"October 31st, 2017," said Soma. "If you're wondering about Dracula's birthdate, it was… I don't know. Sometime in the 11th century."

"Aha!" said Rita. "Vlad the Impaler was alive during the-"

"Fifteenth century; I'm a bit fuzzy on whether the Dracula you know about was really Vlad the Impaler or not," said Soma. Since Vlad the Impaler had such an extensive history that Mathias couldn't have gone through (Vlad had to be a hostage as a child because of his father, long after Mathias had grown up), he was pretty sure that it was coincidence that they both chose the name Dracula. If Arikado's real name wasn't Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, Soma would have written it off as coincidence. "I should probably ask Leon about this one of these days." There was a pause. "I said, I should ask _Leon_ about Dracula and Vlad the Impaler."

"No need to shout; I can't tell you right now since it's a long story and you're in the middle of a conversation," said Leon.

"How can you not know?" asked Peter Morris incredulously. "Doesn't everyone know that Vlad the Impaler is Dracula?"

"Have you read the book?" asked Soma.

"Yes," said Peter, a tad reproachfully. "Um… I read the Cliff's notes. And Sparknotes."

"The bit about Dracula's life is mostly speculation," said Soma. "That's enough for a book, but not for real life. Van Helsing just guesses based on his name. Not you, Rita, your ancestor."

"You think it's weird hearing your surname for people you've never met?" said Mina. "Try hearing your first name being used for a major character over and over again."

"What's your name, again?" asked Matthew Harker.

"Mina Hakuba."

"That must be weird," said Matthew.

"And even if it was certain that they were the same person, knowing the Impala's—I mean, the Impaler's birthdate isn't enough proof," said Mina. "Rita, was it? I'm guessing you got the date from the internet."

"Actually, I got it from a book," said Rita.

"Same difference. You're not the only one who can do research or prepare answers."

"So that's out," said Soma.

"Do you have any other proof?" asked Rita.

Soma turned into a bat, and back into a human.

"That just proves that you have magic powers," said Matthew.

Martin stared at Soma as if he were a giant tap dancing bug. "Why the hell are you trying to prove to a bunch of vampire hunters that you're their target?" he asked. "That's like a cow covering herself with steak sauce!"

"You eat the skins on cows?" said Mina. "Only joking."

"See?" said Soma. "I'm not the only one who's thinking this!"

"It's because we're pretty sure that you'll find out sooner or later, and when that happens, you're not going to go up in arms about the 'betrayal'," said Mina. "Telling you now would mean that Soma isn't going to deceive you."

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" said Matthew angrily. "I brought you right to my friends!"

"Would you tell the Spanish Inquisition about your powers?" asked Soma. "What good does that do?"

"Your words seem reasonable, but I can't help but think that you're using them as an excuse," said Matthew.

"Not the worst thing that someone said about Dracula's words," said Soma.

"This is assuming that Soma is actually Dracula," said Rita.

Mina cleared her throat. "You can prove your weakness to Holy Water," she said slowly in Latin so that she wouldn't betray a weakness to the junior hunters.

"Sorry?" said Soma. Mina repeated herself. "Oh. Thanks. Holy Water burns me, if you have any."

"I have some," said Rita, holding up a super soaker water gun.

Martin shook his head. "But he could just pretend to recoil when you-"

Mina squirted a little bit of water into Soma's palm, where it caught fire. "Is that enough proof?" he asked.

"All that proves is that you're weak to Holy Water," said Rita Van Helsing. "To be honest, even though you can turn into a bat, the whole Holy Water thing is more like demons than vampires."

"If you were a vampire, then the cross would have hurt you," said Stacey Wren. "Why the water and not the cross?"

"I'm not hurt by crosses that aren't blessed," said Soma. "If I were, then I wouldn't be able to walk in front of four pane windows or play the NES version of Legend of Zelda. Holy Water has to be blessed by definition, while crosses are just a shape. Also, I was raised kind of Catholic, so I'm less weak against Catholic stuff compared to, say, Orthodox stuff."

"How do we know that you're not using magic to make fire appear?" asked Matthew.

Soma sighed. "Because it would have been easier to just flinch when you put Holy Water on me. Setting my hand on fire would be going too far."

"Unless that's just what you want us to think," said Matthew.

"Let's back up a bit," said Soma. "Why would I pretend to be Dracula, when I know that you'd attack me right away and there's nothing in it for me?"

"So that you can protect the real one," said Peter.

Soma and Mina looked at each other. "That _is_ a good point," said Mina.

"If you don't believe me, then we're done here," said Soma. "Get out of my room. On second thought, clean it up."

"I'm not saying that I don't believe you, I'm just saying that it's a possibility that you're lying or mistaken," said Rita carefully.

Soma sighed. "Can we continue this conversation under the assumption that I am Dracula's reincarnation? Because I wouldn't-"

"Soma? Why are all these people in our room?" asked a voice from behind. Everyone stared at the two newcomers. The first was Kazuya, but Naoki was definitely not a pretty girl in a white dress.

"Um, hi Kazuya," said Matthew, edging towards the window.

"Don't worry about them," said Soma. He slowly looked at where Kazuya's hands were. His left hand was in the girl's right. "Um… didn't you say that you didn't like dating-"

"This is Aoi," said Kazuya. "She's my wife."

"Ah," said Soma, wishing that he could see the expressions on the faces of everyone who didn't know that Kazuya was married for longer than their parents.

"I'll explain later," said Kazuya. "Who are these people, and why is our room messed up? I'm looking at you, Matthew."

Matthew gulped.

"They're hunters who were looking for Dracula, thinking that he was resurrected, not knowing that I'm his reincarnation," said Soma.

"And why are they in our room?" asked Kazuya.

"They thought I was suspicious and broke in," said Soma.

Kazuya pointed behind him. "Everyone who isn't Soma—all right, Mina, you can stay—get out."

Matthew gaped. "Did you hear a word he said?"

"Yes, I did," said Kazuya. "What, you think you're the only person in this dorm who knows how to keep his ears open?"

Matthew looked at Soma. "You told him that you're Dracula, and he's _fine_ with it?"

Kazuya nodded. "Tatsuya and Jun know, too."

"Them too?" said Matthew.

"Did I miss something here?" asked Peter.

Mina sighed. "This is Soma's roommate."

"So you're a demon!" shouted Peter, grabbing a water pistol, and he squirted Holy Water at Kazuya.

"No, I'm not," said Kazuya, simply striding through the stream and picking up the water pistol out of Peter's hands. "How exactly did you come to that conclusion?"

"He read Naoki's diary, thinking that it was mine," said Soma. "Peter, this is my other roommate, Kazuya Suou. He's the cousin of one of Matthew's roommates, Tatsuya."

"Naoki actually wrote that he's a demon in his diary?" said Kazuya.

"You're the one writing a book about surviving a nuclear, demonic apocalypse," said Soma.

"Touché."

"So right now, these kids are…"

"Is this normal?" Aoi asked Mina.

"It's not abnormal," Mina answered. "I doubt that anyone in this school is normal."

"I'm glad that I've been in another city the whole time," said Aoi.

"…And right when I tell them that I'm Dracula's reincarnation, they don't believe me," Soma finished explaining to Kazuya.

"It's not that we don't believe you, it's that we don't have enough proof either way and we can't risk being wrong," said Rita.

"How about this," said Aoi. "If Soma can prove that he means no harm, then that means that you can safely ignore him. It doesn't really matter if he's Dracula or not, as long as you assume that he isn't. If Soma isn't Dracula, then you'll probably find the real deal. If he is, then you know that he's not hurting anyone, and no harm done."

The group mulled it over. "All right, let's do that," said Rita. "Soma, can you prove that you're harmless?"

"If I wanted to take over the world, I would have done it by now," said Soma.

"I don't think that you're powerful enough at the moment," said Rita.

"I could," said Soma reproachfully.

"I mean, we'd stop you if you tried," said Kazuya.

"That's what the Cat O'Nine Tails is for," said Aoi, taking out a torture implement.

"But I haven't done anything like poison the water supply or cut your head off while you sleep," said Soma.

"If you cut my head off, you'll have to deal with Naoki, who can't be hurt by anything but guns, earth magic, water magic, wind magic, almighty magic-"

"That's a lot of weaknesses," said Natsumi Holmwood.

"And that's not counting his insane demonic resistance to anything you throw at him," added Kazuya.

"You didn't mention water magic before," said Soma.

"He had a drunken spat with Michelle the other night," said Kazuya.

"Look," said Mina. "Aoi and Kazuya have a point. In the unlikely event that Soma tried to take over the world, all of our friends would band together to stop him. I mean, a Belmont is already at the head of the queue."

"A what?" said Rita.

"A queue is a line," said Mina.

"No, what's a Belmont?"

Mina and Soma looked at each other. "They think that their ancestors were the first to kill Dracula," explained Soma.

"The _first_?" Peter and Matthew repeated in unison.

"But you can't kill someone more than once," said Matthew.

"Undead vampire, remember?" said Mina.

"I keep forgetting how many times Dracula comes back from the dead," said Soma. "Turned in the eleventh century, first killed in the fifteenth, and kept on being killed and coming back until 1999, when someone finally killed him for good. Quincey Morris was just one of many."

Peter looked incredibly surprised and disappointed. "But I thought my ancestor was the only-"

"Just take pride in the fact that your ancestor got to kill Dracula," said Mina reassuringly.

"Several of them, in fact," said Soma. "You've got Quincey Morris, his son John, John's son Jonathan, Jonathan's wife Charlotte, and that's just the people who got the Morris surname."

"The Belmonts are this family of vampire hunters that have traditionally been the ones to kill Dracula every time he comes back, dating back to the fifth century," explained Mina. "The Morris family is a branch."

Peter nodded shakily.

"Oh, come off it," said Kazuya. "My only famous ancestor only existed because of a rumor that magically became true because of some otherworldly gods decided to mess with one city."

"That aside, Soma, you've got someone strong enough to kill you if you will take over the world," said Rita. "So even if you're not harmless, we know that you're not going to be a threat."

"I'm glad that's settled," said Soma.

"But that's only assuming that you're telling the truth," said Matthew flatly.

Soma sighed. "Are you still mad at me?"

"Probably, but that doesn't automatically make his argument illegitimate," said Martin Seward. When Soma looked at him, he said, "I'm usually the contrarian. I have an entire list of excuses."

"Can I just use the fact that I'm still putting up with you when you broke into my room, shoved a cross in my face, yelled at me to tell the truth when I wasn't lying, led me on an insane amount of tangents, didn't call the cops on you, and I _still_ don't want to kill you as proof that I'm not evil?" said Soma.

There was an awkward pause. "All right, _fine_ ," said Matthew. "You're Dracula, and you're not evil. I believe you now. No actor would be able to put up with us."

"I believe that you owe me something for all the trouble," said Soma.

"A video game?" said Peter.

"A puppy?" said Stacey Wren.

"Anything," said Soma. "Like a box of chocolates. Although a video game would not be amiss."

Kazuya cleared his throat. "Now that that's settled, I have something to say to the burglars."

He indicated towards the torn bedsheets, the overturned trash cans, and the unfluffed pillows. "Clean this mess up!"

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Isaac's laser cannon: Isaac doesn't actually have a laser cannon in the game. But I think that when Isaac left the castle to hunt down Hector, he didn't bring everything with him and he left lots of good weapons inside. And when he came back, the castle was gone.

[2] I did read through _Dracula_ for reference. Guess what? A villager really did give Jonathan a cross, and he said that it protected him. Presumably by throwing it. And Stoker really did write one more paragraph that described Dracula's castle collapsing, but he thought that it was too ridiculous.

[3] Mina Harker being cured with the Sanctuary spell: In Portrait of Ruin, Eric says that the chance of a spell to cure vampirism working is very slim and that he couldn't manage it, which implies that the Sanctuary spell was known when he was alive.

I was this close to making 'Renfield' actually Eric's grandfather, but then I decided that Dracula wouldn't treat his descendant so horribly. In this version, the Lecardes are Alucard and Maria's descendants. The idea was that Eric was sent to live with his grandfather for a while, but then Dracula drove him insane, so Quincey, the nearest relative, was asked to take care of Eric in the meantime.

The descendants are based off of adventure cartoon characters. Not any specific one, but the ones that I saw as a kid. Ruth is the main character normal person. Matthew is the older brother figure who is still learning to control his mysterious powers that manifested on his sixteenth birthday. Stacey is the slightly older gothy character who seems like a bad person, but turns out to be very sweet underneath. Martin is the grumpy loudmouth guy who always gets the short stick and appears to be useless, but he's actually the reason why the plot moves along and is almost always right. Peter is the youngest and has the flashiest powers, but he's the least mature. I try not to make him super bratty, but he doesn't think things through. Natsumi is the hypercompetent person who's also very lazy and just hangs around the others for thrills.

I just realized that Peter Morris has the biggest Mary Sue backstory. If he's Quincey Morris's descendant, he has to be John and Jonathan's descendant, so that's fair. But if Jonathan married Charlotte, he's also descended from the Belnades if the Aulins are an offshoot. And if he's also related to the Lecardes and the theory that the Lecardes are descended from Alucard and Maria is true, he's also descended from Dracula. In other words, you get a kid who is related to almost every main Castlevania character.

I arbitrarily decided that Martin and Stacey are both Leon's descendants. That doesn't have any plot importance and it doesn't give them any powers. It's just because Leon lived so long ago, had about a dozen kids (even if he only trained two), and is confirmed to have many descendants in the Belmonts and branch families.

The names of the six kids were just names that I like, but guess where the other names came from. There's Matthew's cousin Madeline, Jonathan's grandson Joseph, Loretta's granddaughter Leila, and Peter's father Arthur.

When I was in middle school and we actually did stretches in gym, I always wondered why no one else was trying when we did butterfly stretch. It's the one where you sit on the ground with your legs flat on the ground and knees bent so that your feet are together and close to your body, and then you bend forward. Most people just leaned a bit, but I could stick my nose between my shoes. Now I can lay my head on the ground. The other day, I was doing stretches with a parkour club. We did a stretch where we sit down and grab one leg as close to our bodies as we can. I couldn't feel anything, so I asked what muscle this was supposed to stretch. Then someone said that the step up from that stretch was to put your foot behind your head. Which I did. He said that that's why I didn't feel anything. And as I was writing this, I realized that my relaxed sitting position is grabbing one leg against my body.

But… I'm very bad at pull ups and push ups.


	21. Chapter 21: OMAKE 3 Halloween

I'm glad that people liked the last chapter. It was the one I was most nervous about, since it had five OCs when people were complaining about them. I was even more nervous about that one than Evil Hammer.

Since there are so many characters, I thought that this chapter would be a good recap for them.

After Halloween passes, this chapter is going to be really dated. I doubt that people actually celebrate Halloween in Japan, but whatever.

This chapter has a very large ratio of SMT characters to Castlevania characters, but since I'm trying to bring in everyone…

OMAKE: Halloween

"We're having a costume party?" said Soma, the main character of this story and the soul devouring reincarnation of Count Dracula who still managed to be on the side of good. For the last chapters, he was in his first year of college, but for this chapter he is in his second year.

Mina, his not-girlfriend and part time miko, nodded. "It's Halloween, after all. Everyone in the SSS is invited. There'll be free food, as long as you turn up in a costume."

"Where are we having it?" asked Soma. "At the beach again?"

"The really rich people rented a large cabin in the woods nearby," said Mina. She gave Soma the address. "Are you coming?"

"Anything for free food," said Soma.

"What kind of costume?" asked Mina.

"I'll be ironic and dress up like a vampire," said Soma.

"I would have thought you'd do something a bit more imaginative," said Mina.

"What were you planning on dressing up as?" retorted Soma.

"A witch," said Mina.

"Aren't you already a female magic user?" said Soma.

"I just like witches," said Mina curtly.

"So I guess we'll be the ironic couple, then," said Soma. "This should be fun."

"Is that even what ironic means?" asked Mina.

"I think it does," said Soma.

X

"Is everyone else here trying to be ironic, or just lazy?" asked Matthew Harker, who had dressed up as Iron Man. He was a descendant of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and had weird magical powers because Mina had gotten some from Dracula.

In front of them, Mina's two roommates Chihiro Makimura and Margarita Yamamoto were talking about chocolate. Chihiro was a Magical Girl who used to hunt monsters, and Margarita was a hitman for the Portuguese mafia. They were dressed as a Red Mage from Final Fantasy and a generic Assassin from Fire Emblem 7 respectively. Soma had met Chihiro when he had turned into a vampire and she mistook him for a target, and he briefly encountered Margarita when she abducted him from his dorm.

"Um…" said Soma, sweating in his opera cape.

"I didn't sew a costume this nice by hand to be called lazy," grumbled Kazuya, who was dressed up as Faust. Kazuya was Soma's roommate from an alternate dimension who summoned demons with computers, and was actually a 68 year old man inside a 19 year old's body. This had prevented him from dating anyone but his wife from that same alternate dimension.

"I'm not saying that you didn't work hard on your costume, just that you didn't go very far thinking about it," said Matthew.

"All right, fine, this is the same dress I wore as the leader of the Resistance," said Aoi, who was dressed up as Mon Mothma. She was a mage warrior and former Rebel Leader. She was also Kazuya's wife from that same alternate dimension, and that had also put a crimp in her dating life.

Soma looked at the married couple. "How did you not find each other for four years?"

"We didn't know each others' surnames," said Aoi. "I couldn't disclose mine when I was the leader of the Resistance, because I was afraid that my family would be targeted if I was overheard."

"Same here," said Kazuya. "I wasn't leader, but I didn't want to endanger my relatives."

"And then after the nukes hit, I saved Kazu by teleporting him, but I couldn't save myself," said Aoi. "I died, but I reincarnated thirty years later. I could remember Kazu from my past life, but nothing else."

"And that included Aoi's surname," said Kazuya. "Even when we could talk freely, I didn't know her surname."

"Kazu never told me his, either," said Aoi. "He said it wasn't important anymore."

Soma nodded. "You were reincarnated in this world like Kazuya was, right?"

Aoi nodded. "And it was freaky, because unlike Kazuya, I hardly had any memory of anything from before the nukes. So I woke up in my own bed, not knowing my own parents or that I had a brother. For once in my life, I was glad that I didn't have any friends. And don't feel sorry for me. I'm older than your mother, remember?"

Soma nodded. "What is your surname, again?"

"I never told you before, but it's Belnades," said Aoi.

"Hm," said Soma. "Are you related to Yoko, by any chance? Yoko Belnades?" He indicated Yoko Belnades, a witch who worked for the Agency of Supernatural Investigation and Mina's teacher in fighting magic. Yoko, unsurprisingly, had on green face paint, a pointy hat, a black dress, and red shoes.

"She's my cousin, but I don't remember how exactly we're related," said Aoi. "The last time I went to a family reunion was when I was thirteen."

"Were you also trained in monster hunting?" asked Soma.

"Not like Yoko was," said Aoi. "We're supposed to have at least one person fighting the darkness at a time. Yoko signed on, but I didn't want to. But anyone who has magic has to be trained in it, because magic can be dangerous if misused."

"Did you know about Dracula?" asked Soma.

Aoi shrugged. "I might have, but I forgot when I reincarnated and I never asked."

Matthew looked at Soma. "I challenge you to find one non ironic costume other than my own."

"You're on," said Soma confidently.

Two minutes later, he found that Hijiri (a reporter who was the cursed reincarnation of the Messiah who had killed God) was actually dressed as Brian from _Life of Brian_ and not as a Tatooine resident like he thought, Mitsuru Kirijo (the insanely rich head of both the Kirijo Group and the Shadow Organization, a Persona user, and the one who funded most of the SSS's activities) was trying to be Batman, not Catwoman, and that Toph is awesome. He got an earful from Ginko (a martial artist named Lisa Silverman from an alternate dimension where everything was destroyed except for Sumaru City and also a Persona user) when he didn't recognize the clothes.

Soma walked around with a sinking heart, discovering that the spies the Agency hired to keep an eye on him were allowed to attend the party. The spies were named Saitou, Saizou, Suzukaze, Seiji, Seto, Seta, Souta, Shinichi, Shinpachi, Shinji, Sanosuke, Sho, Saburo, and Hikaru. He found out that they were dressed as various fictional ninjas such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kaze, Gurei, and Saizou from Fire Emblem, Shadow from Final Fantasy, and apparently Hikaru missed the memo and instead dressed like James Bond.

Soma then went to get some cider. Other Tatsuya and Other Jun, Matthew's two roommates who were Persona users from alternate Sumaru City and also a couple, were drinking sodas. Other Tatsuya Suou was in a Greek tunic and was carrying around a lyre, and Other Jun had dyed his hair green and put on creepy clown makeup.

"So, um… nice costumes," Soma said.

"Thanks," said Other Tatsuya. "We wanted to dress as something that we technically were. And I guess you decided to be, too."

"Um?" said Soma.

"I'm Apollo, and Jun is the Joker," said Tatsuya.

"I used to be called The Joker, and Apollo is Tatsuya's Persona," added Jun.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person who didn't dress as what they secretly are," said Matthew, a tad smugly when they went to the cupcakes.

"Yes, because then you'd be wearing a dress," said Soma.

"Witches can be male," said Matthew. "They're called warlocks."

"I'm not a witch," said Mina. "I'm a miko."

"And I'm not a vampire," said Soma. "But we're close enough. And Naoki's true demon form is just him with glowing tattoos, not plastic horns and pitchforks."

Mina pointed at Hammer, a former US Marine who became a shopkeeper who was trying to learn how to control the demons that his ancestor Hector left for him, who was dressed as the Happy Mask shopkeeper. "He's not dressed like what he secretly is," said Mina.

"Yes, but he's still a shopkeeper with some strong connection to sealed monsters," said Soma. "And no one knows his real name."

"Mark Colin Hamilton," said Mina.

"Really," said Soma.

"His friends in middle school realized that his initials were MC Hamilton," added Mina.

"MC Hammer," said Soma. "Very imaginative."

"It's more interesting than just Mark," said Mina. "Oh, hi Julius. You're not dressed like a vampire hunter today."

"There isn't a standardized vampire hunting costume," said Julius Belmont, vampire hunter, head of the Belmont family, the last person to kill Dracula, and the one Soma trusted to kill him if he ever became Dracula, interrupting the conversation to get at a chocolate cream cupcake.

"Yes, but you're dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the most famous vampire hunter in history," said Soma.

"Yes, but he's not famous for being a vampire hunter, so that doesn't count," said Julius.

"Is Hilda here?" asked Soma. Hilda Heinrich was Julius's adult niece who worked for the Portuguese mafia. She kidnapped Soma to ransom his father's debts, but Soma escaped. They didn't like each other very much.

"She is," said Julius. "She's Indiana Jones. She said something about how every 'woman with a whip' costume was too light on clothing to wear when it's this cold out."

"Look at Yukari," said Mina. "She looks like she came straight here from filming and didn't bother to change." Yukari Takeba has not been introduced in this story, but she is a Persona user who works as an actress for Phoenix Featherman.

"And there's Daisuke, telling her that her costume looks like she bought it in a half off bin," said Soma. "And he's dressed as Koji Kabuto." Daisuke Higawa is a delinquent who works for a government organization called FALCON to fight against the evil Cyber Hell and their cyborgs by piloting giant mechas. He picked on Soma for a while, until he found out that Soma was stronger than him even inside his robot. Daisuke's four pilot mates, Rei the token tsundere love interest, Haruka the token 'big sis' and Hikaru's younger sister, Vicky/Becky the token non Japanese person, and Midori the former token child before she grew up, were dressed as the Mazinger Angels. None of them were ever formally introduced, but did appear in one chapter and were mentioned once or twice before.

"And Aigis is the Terminator," said Julius. "I didn't know that she could make her voice that deep. Then again, synthesizers." Aigis has also not been introduced in this story, but she is a robot with a Persona and a slight stalking habit.

"Oh, look, Teddie's dressed as Alice from _Alice in Wonderland_ ," said Soma. "And… there's Kazuya, running away in panic. I didn't think he was serious about him being afraid of Alice." Teddie has also not been introduced, but he is an abomination springing from the darkest depths of the human unconscious. He also likes crossdressing and topsicles.

Julius walked off to talk to Michelle, who was dressed as Hades from the Disney version of Hercules. Michelle, real name Eikichi Mishima, was Daisuke's roommate and a Persona user from alternate Sumaru City. He played in a band and has managed to progress to merely bad since his high school days. He and Soma once had a contest where they tried to keep their heads under water for a long time.

"I'm going to go get some pizza," said Mina, leaving Soma alone.

"You look like you're having fun," said Leon, who somehow changed his clothes from his usual longcoat to his Dark Knight avatar from Eternal Punishment online. Leon was the first member of the Belmont family to become a vampire hunter and Dracula's old friend. He died long ago, but his ghost remained to haunt his descendants by squealing over how cute they were.

Soma looked at Leon. "You're probably the only person I've met who isn't wearing an ironic costume, but I can't prove it to Matthew."

"Actually, Leon is the name of the Dark Knight in Final Fantasy II," said Leon. "I was stuck between the Dark Knight and Nearly Headless Nick. Even though I died of disease instead of beheading."

"Never mind then," said Soma.

"This Tatsuya Suou is Spock," suggested Leon. "The two Katsuyas look like they both wanted to be Robocop." This Tatsuya Suou was the Tatsuya Suou from the current dimension, and he was a relatively weak Persona user. This Katsuya Suou was a cop with a Persona almost as strong as Other Tatsuya's. Other Katsuya Suou used to be a cop, but couldn't keep his job in the new reality because a) the only place he had ever been a cop in already had one version of him, and b) there were background checks in police jobs. So he was living his dream as a pastry chef who didn't need to use oven mitts before his Persona protected him from fire. To avoid complications, all four Suou brothers decided that they were all brothers regardless of which reality they were from. They were also Kazuya's cousins.

"This Tatsuya's Persona is Vulcanus, and Spock is a Vulcan," said Soma. "Who else?"

"I think that Ken and Koromaru are trying to be those people from Old Yeller," said Leon. Ken and Koromaru had not been introduced to the story, but Ken is the youngest (human) Persona user, and Koromaru is his dog.

"You seem to know a lot about TV," said Soma.

"Julius watches a lot," said Leon.

Soma remembered something. "Hey, Leon… you said that the Belmont family hideout doesn't get TV, right?"

"Yes, we're paranoid and we think that it's possible to track someone with a TV signal," said Leon. "Is that possible?"

"Ask someone who knows about that," said Soma. "But a while back, you said that you watched cage wrestling matches and didn't like it when your descendants changed the channel. How could you, when your descendants didn't get TV?"

"Not all my descendants live in the hideout," said Leon. "Some live in the nearby town. We can't just keep marrying our cousins, so we usually find someone in the town. We'd have some of us moving into the town after marriage, some villagers moving into our home, and some skipping town completely."

"Makes sense," said Soma. "Leon, I'll let you into my body if you want food, as long as Mina is there to get you out. That will be a non ironic costume."

"If you can prove that I'm not you pretending to be me," said Leon.

"Well, there goes that idea," said Soma. "What's with Aoi, anyways?"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Leon.

"She couldn't remember her childhood, so what kind of life did she live?" said Soma. "I mean, I got the impression that the Belmonts were holing up in the mountains somewhere, but what happened to the Belnades?"

"The Belnades are like any other family," said Leon. "Sons and daughters make their way into the world, get married, don't get married, have children, join other families, move to new places, become disowned, disown themselves, and whatnot. They don't always stay in one place. Yoko and Aoi's grandfather moved to Japan decades ago. Other than the magic, they lived fairly normal lives."

"Yoko said that the Belnades also have a duty to kill Dracula," said Soma. "And Aoi said that only one person needs to be trained. Does everyone in the Belnades clan know about Dracula? Do they live with that hanging over them?"

"Well, it's hard to tell all of Sypha's descendants, but in general, yes," said Leon. "Unlike the Belmonts, the Belnades prioritize training their powers, and they are told about the family duty when they become of age. Or at least when their parents tell them. After they are told, they can choose to train as a warrior that will fight evil and train the next generation, or drop the matter for the rest of their lives. Aoi probably refused in her alternate timeline and forgot when she reincarnated."

"What about the Belmonts?" asked Soma. "Does every Belmont know about Dracula? It seems like a stupid question."

"Not everyone with my name, no," said Leon. "My descendants move out, start new families elsewhere, and forget about their ancestors. The Belnades family is closer knit in general because when magic runs in the family, it is the parents' responsibility to ensure that outsiders do not find out. Before Richter, the only Belmonts who knew about our duty were the ones who were relatively closely related to the wielder of the Vampire Killer, or simply lived close by. Today, only those who live in the hideout or the village know."

"Huh," said Soma. "What about the other branch families?"

Leon shrugged. "Branch families are families that my descendants married into. They're only considered branches of the Belmonts if they associate with us, and if they're associated with us, then they're usually hunters. The Morrises seem to have given up, barring Peter. The Lecardes are still hunting. The Schneider line technically ended with Reinhardt's daughter Olwen when she married a man named Fred, but the descendants are still hunting monsters under different names. And there are many others that you have never heard of."

"I think I get the point," said Soma.

Leon nodded. "Anyways, are you having any luck looking for people with non ironic costumes?"

Soma looked at Yu and Yosuke, who were a samurai and ninja respectively. They were Persona users from the town of Inaba, and Soma only really met them in passing inside the baths before they started attending meetings. "I'm pretty sure that they're dressing like their Personas," said Soma.

"What about Teddie?" asked Leon.

"Good point," said Soma. "He's not dressed as a bear, a Japanese historical figure, or a monster born from the deepest depths of the id. He looks really cute, too."

Matthew, who happened to be standing next to Soma, gave Teddie a long, hard look, as if he expected him to sprout tentacles. "That's a guy?" he said. Or that.

"Well, as male as you can be when you're the spawn of the collective darkness of mankind," said Soma.

"I'm sorry, but whose idea was it to invite him?" asked Matthew.

"Come on," said Soma. "We wouldn't bring someone evil to our parties. They'd eat all the chips, and then we'd have to clean up their corpses." He cleared his throat. "All joking aside, you seem to be the only one who has trouble with seeing people with dark magic or origins as good. Why is that?"

Matthew shrugged. "I guess it's because for the longest time, if I met someone with dark powers, they were evil. No exceptions. You were the first."

"I suppose so," said Soma. "Teddie's not wearing an ironic costume. Go talk to him."

Matthew nodded shakily, strode over to Teddie, and cleared his throat. "So you're Alice from Alice in Wonderland?" he asked Teddie.

"No, I'm dressed as one of sensei's Personas, Alice!" said Teddie. Not for the last time, Soma wondered how he managed to sparkle like that.

"And why did you dress like her?" asked Soma.

"Because I already had the dress from a pageant back when sensei was in high school," explained Teddie.

"And that's it?" asked Soma. "You just like the costume?"

Teddie nodded. "Yeah! It reminds me of when I used to see sensei and the others every day and…"

Teddie kept on jabbering, and Matthew listened politely.

Suddenly, a fairy burst into the room. "All right, who didn't invite me to the party?"

"Technically, all of us," said Hijiri.

The fairy scowled. "For the crime of not inviting me to-"

"Pardon me, but who are you, exactly?" asked Mitsuru.

"I am the fairy of the woods!" growled the fairy.

"You don't look very Japanese," observed This Katsuya Suou.

"Why does everyone think that only Japanese supernatural creature can live in Japan?" said the fairy. "I've been living here for far longer than you!"

"Actually, I don't think that a non Japanese fairy in Japan is that strange," said Kazuya.

"Thank you!" said the fairy. "You will be spared from my wrath!"

"Your wrath?" said Soma. "But we don't have any newborns."

"You don't?" said the fairy, blinking. "Oh well. I'll curse all of you to turn into your costumes!"

When this failed to get a reaction, the fairy said, "Oh, come on!"

"Well, you do realize that most people on Halloween try to dress up as things that they admire," said Mina. "Turning someone who likes magic into a wizard isn't that horrible of a curse."

"Becoming a samurai when you're already a samurai is not the worst fate that could befall a fellow," said Isabeau, who was dressed as a Japanese samurai and not a Mikado samurai. Isabeau, along with a guy named Flynn, were samurai from an alternate dimension where Tokyo was saved from being nuked by a magical sphere of earth, and they lived on top of the sphere in the faux-medieval Eastern Kingdom of Mikado. Isabeau did part time work at a manga shop. Neither of them were formally introduced, but they were mentioned before.

"Like she said, most of us here are already dressed as something that we already are," said Matthew. "As for the rest of us, it's not like we're dressed up as evil psychopaths…"

"Please don't do it," Yu said to the fairy.

"You don't like being a samurai?" asked Matthew.

"No, because Alice would turn us all into zombies if Teddie turned into her," said Yu. "That's only assuming if none of us wants to kill him if that happens."

Matthew blinked, probably wondering if he translated that right. "Come again?"

"Alice is an insane undead child with extreme magical power," said Yu. "She asks people to die for her."

"Are we talking about the same thing here?" asked Matthew. "Alice? Cute girl who falls down a rabbit hole?"

"We're not," said Yu.

"Did I mention that her adopted fathers are Belial and Nebiros of the Ars Goetia?" added Aoi. "We had to seal Belial in a magic pot. Nebiros killed my friend."

"Ah," said Matthew, sweating. He read about demons as soon as he learned that they were real. "Please, Miss Fairy, don't-"

"Pleasure doing business with you," the fairy said to Kazuya. She was holding a sack of pennies.

"Thank you, come again," said Kazuya. The fairy vanished into Kazuya's smartphone.

"What was that?" asked Soma.

"Oh, I just bribed her into making a contract with me," said Kazuya. "She was very easy to please. Just pocket change and one of your magical pies."

"That reminds me," said Mina. She produced a cake from her purse. "Happy Birthday, Soma!"

And then they partied the night away.

X

Meanwhile, Genya Arikado, aka Alucard, and real name Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, the son of Dracula and currently a senior agent of the Agency of Supernatural Investigation, was catching up on work. That was just as well, given that no one could picture him wearing a costume.

TO BE CONTINUED!

It's a bit late, but for the six Dracula hunters, I have reasons for their powers.

Rita Van Helsing has no powers, only cunning, because Van Helsing in the books fought with knowledge. She's also the main character, so if anyone has no superpowers, it's her.

Matthew Harker has magic because Mina Harker's flashiest show of power was essentially magical spying.

Peter Morris has the weapons because he's descended from Metroidvania characters with those weapons, but also because Quincey Morris is the best fighter in Dracula.

Martin Seward is good with technology because Dr. Seward helps by analyzing, recording, and other stuff.

Stacey Wren has animal powers because Renfield is strongly associated with animals, even if he tried to eat them.

And Natsumi Holmwood is a ninja because Arthur Holmwood doesn't do anything that couldn't have been done by someone else.


	22. Chapter 22: Miscellaneous

So far, the current requests are: Tsuchinoko, Zephyr, Yeti, Mina being jealous, Killer Clown, Dracula, Legion, a normal person finding out, and Arikado. This chapter is dedicated to all the requests that I can't make an entire chapter out of. I can make a chapter out of Legion, Zephyr, and Arikado, and Dracula will be an Omake, but nothing else. Oh, and I'm pushing back the jealous Mina and the normal person chapters for a bit.

I'm getting a lot of mixed reviews about this story. Thank you for taking the time to criticize. It makes me realize that you actually care enough about my story to want it to be better. Those of you who are happy, I hope you don't mind the changes. The general consensus is that no one likes the sheer amount of non-Castlevania characters. I take this to mean that SOME non-Castlevania characters are all right. From now on, the core cast of characters will be reduced to Castlevania characters, Kazuya and Naoki (because they're Soma's roommates, secret keepers, and have been there since the first chapter), and Daisuke because he's the most normal person. Everyone else will be an extra. They will appear, but mostly as mentions or as crowd filler. I will also not introduce any more new characters into this story. At least, I won't introduce any new _recurring_ characters. People like Celia's building consultant don't count as new characters.

Actually, how about I compromise. I'll have chapters that are about Soma and his souls (or any Castlevania character doing stuff) in this story. They'll still include the non-Castlevania characters, but they won't be in focus. Chapters that center around the relationships between Castlevania and SMT characters will be put up on a separate story. I realized that some chapters just had the souls tacked on as an excuse to include SMT plots. How many of you are on board with that?

Disclaimer: I have no knowledge of architecture. Any speculation in this chapter is based on my scant knowledge.

This is a warning. This fic is far from over, but I can no longer spend any time on it. Life has caught up with me, and I will have to quit for a while. I'm posting this as my last chapter for a while because it was mostly done, and I didn't want this to sit in my folders until I'm free.

Miscellaneous

Soma was completely immune to the ill effects of his soul powers. That is, he couldn't cut himself with the knives he made or burn himself with the fires he generated. He had been hurt by his own stupidity before. He found that while touching fires that he made with magic was safe, lighting something else on fire and touching that was not a good idea. He was careful to remember that things like giving people evil curry (or eating it himself) or flinging around scythes willy-nilly might not be the best of ideas, but sometimes he forgot.

Like when the SSS had a beach party, and the ice machine for shaved ice broke. Soma suggested that he could run around with the Yeti soul to make a snowball appear, and then scoop out the snow. The Yeti soul for some reason didn't pick up sand or dirt when Soma ran around, which everyone was grateful for.

Naoki was first in line and deemed it perfect. Everyone knew that Naoki had the body of an immortal demon and wanted a second opinion, so Eikichi was brave enough to volunteer. He deemed it too sweet, but otherwise satisfactory. Everything was fine until Daisuke requested a bowl.

Daisuke complained that his mouth felt like evil spirits were eating his teeth, which everyone thought was just brain freeze.

Only after Yoko and Hammer started complaining about soul pains did Soma remember that the snowball was specifically said to be made from dark magic. Eikichi and Naoki were both immune to dark magic, but not everyone else was. They eventually resorted to having everyone with ice powers make giant chunks of ice appear, and then shaving them down.

X

The Yeti soul came in handy during the summer months. Unlike the Frozen Shade soul, which just made lots of ice appear for a moment before vanishing, the Yeti snowball would stay as long as Soma wanted it. Soma would leave the large ball of snow to slowly absorb the surrounding heat, or just lie on it shirtless. Naoki would do that, too, whenever Soma wasn't on it.

However, while Naoki was immune to its dark energy, Kazuya was not. He got burned every time he brushed against it. It didn't hurt him that badly, but as he said, while most people won't die from cutting their fingers by accident, they generally try to avoid it.

"This snowball is too big," he grumbled, jumping over it, slipping on the water it left on the floor, and falling flat on his face. "Move it somewhere else."

"But it's the only reason why we don't need an AC," said Soma. "Besides, it helps the environment. Jun uses his Persona as a fan."

"Yes, but he's not dumping a lump of dark magic in the middle of the floor," said Kazuya. "Put it on your bed or something."

"But it melts," moaned Soma.

"Then why are you putting it on our floor?!" shouted Kazuya. "There'll be mildew all over the place!"

"Um…"

"Put it away!"

In the end, whenever the room got too hot, Soma would use the Frozen Shade soul to quickly drop the temperature a degree at a time. It wasn't as efficient as the always-on Yeti soul, but at least there was no cleanup involved. Whenever either Soma or Naoki were too hot, they'd go to the roof and lie on the giant snowball there.

X

"Hey, Soma?" Hammer asked one day when Soma went to his place to get some soap. "Remember when we met in Castlevania?"

Soma nodded. "How could I forget?"

"I remembered something weird when you came to my shop," said Hammer. "Remember how we had to count the money by hand? Sometimes, you'd count out less than what I asked for, but somehow when I counted it, it would turn out that you gave me the exact change. You always dodged the question back then."

"Oh, right," said Soma. "That's the Tsuchinoko soul. It does this thing where I can give out slightly less money than you ask for, and you still get the amount you ask for by magic. I didn't mention it back then because I didn't want any of you to know about my powers. It's not terribly useful anymore."

"How is that not useful?" asked Hammer. "Does it not work with credit cards or something?"

"Unfortunately, it does," said Soma. "But when I use it with a credit or debit card, my account only is charged a fraction of what the shop gets. The problem is that the bank records everything, and they'll find that the give and take is unbalanced. It was lucky that I only did it once before my bank statement came in. They assumed that there was a mistake, not that I hacked the system."

"So it's useless," said Hammer.

"Not entirely," said Soma. "It works with cash, and it helps money stretch just a little bit more. But it doesn't save very much, because it works by percentages and I can't throw around a ton of American dollars like I used to."

Hammer looked at Soma. "Soma, how much money do you have on you right now?"

Soma told him. It wasn't very much.

"I have an idea," said Hammer. "Do the thing with that soul and buy this." He handed Soma a sword.

"Thanks, but I already have a… Hammer, you're not seriously…?"

"Here's how it works," said Hammer. "You buy the sword for 1000 yen. You'll only spend like 900, 800 yen on it, but I get 1000. Then I'll buy the sword back from you for 1000 yen, and you'll steadily accumulate more money. Then we can split it."

"That sounds like it's too easy," said Soma. He bought the sword anyways with less money that he should have, Hammer got 1000 yen out of it, and then Hammer handed the 1000 yen to Soma. As soon as the money touched Soma's hands, the extra interest vanished. "Well, there goes that idea," said Hammer.

"Like I said, this seems too easy," said Soma. "If making money was that easy, then there wouldn't be any point to the Mimic soul."

"Let's try that again, except I'll hold onto the money," said Hammer. This time, when he got the money, he only gave Soma the exact same amount that Soma had given him and held the rest in his other hand. The interest vanished again. "We can get a third party to hold the money on your behalf?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that it won't work," said Soma.

When Soma got back to the dorm later that day, he tried it again with Naoki and Kazuya. Naoki 'sold' him a chopstick for several thousand yen and gave Kazuya the remainder as a third party, but it vanished anyways. Naoki decided to keep the money Soma gave him, until Kazuya threatened to not cook for him for the rest of the year. Naoki caved.

Soma lay awake in bed, realizing something important. "How could Celia possibly have all that money just lying around in her castle? Dracula could make lots of money just by getting hit, but what about her?"

X

Celia's building consultant stared at Celia. She was a devoted member of With Light, and was all for having balance in the world, but this was pushing it. "You want to do _what_?"

"Fill all the candles with American coins," said Celia. "Mostly pennies, but also nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, silver dollars, and gold dollars."

Celia's building consultant just gaped. "Why?" she managed to sputter out after a while.

"I intend it to be a perfect replica of Castlevania," said Celia calmly. "That includes the money in the candles."

Celia's building consultant showed Celia her clipboard. "Do you know how many candles and torches you asked to be installed?" she said, incredulous. "Even if we put just pennies in all of them, that would be over a million dollars! That's not even including the cost of the candles themselves. Do we want the kind that dribbles, or the kind that smokes, or ones that burn in interesting colors?"

"Did I mention that we will also be giving some monsters money to carry around as well?" asked Celia.

Celia's building consultant groaned inwardly. "The fact is," she said patiently, "we simply do not have enough money to do that. I'm not saying that I wouldn't sell my apartment, my classic comic book collection, and my dog for our righteous cause, but builders, suppliers, truckers, and architects happen to like being paid. Can't we just take out the moat? Or we could take out the weird space distorting room in the Demon Guest House. Do we even need that place?"

"Yes, we do," said Celia curtly. "Remember, I am a demon summoner. I can call any help we may require."

"Yes, but labor force aside, you're still looking at millions in…stuff," retorted Celia's building consultant. "Why do we need so many four poster beds? And the miles of carpet, banners, chandeliers, stained glass windows… That's going to cost us. Hell, we haven't even gotten into the price of all the stone!"

"I will provide," said Celia loftily.

Celia's building consultant sighed. "Of course, mistress."

"Now then, in these rooms here, we will place the Durandal, which I bought off some Japanese auctioning web site…"

After Celia instructed where to put the very valuable and expensive weapons of lore, Celia's building consultant coughed. "One more thing," she said. "You chose the building site to be on top of a mine that leads to a hellish dimension. I can understand that. It's evil and it's cheap. But why in God's name are we digging out a _giant cavern full of water_ and then building an entire castle on top of it?!"

"Castlevania had one," said Celia.

"Yes, but Castlevania is made out of chaos and dark magic," said Celia's building consultant. "We have to live with the laws of physics. To start with, we're building on a _cliff over a lake_! Yes, it's made from rock, but we're looking at foundations that are being steadily eroded by water. It'll be even worse when we hollow it out, and then we'll get erosion from the inside as well."

"It is possible to build supports, correct?" said Celia.

"Yes, but it would be much more efficient to just not have the caverns," said Celia's building consultant.

"We are keeping the caverns."

The building consultant sighed. "Then we'll need to downsize. Do you have a shoebox or something that I can borrow? Something big and blocky."

Celia handed her building consultant a dictionary. "Pretend that this is the castle," said Celia's building consultant. "It's big and bulky, right? You want a cavern underneath, right? So we make a cavern. Except while it's long and deep, it's not very wide." Celia's building consultant used the dictionary to bridge a small gap between two other books. "It will be like building the castle over a bridge for a creek instead of for a river. The weight of the castle will be distributed over a larger surface area if the caverns only take up a small portion of the base. It won't solve the exterior erosion problem, but it's better than having an oversized cavern."

"So it would be a sham cavern," said Celia flatly. "A miniature one."

"No, it's large because it's deep and long, but it just won't be wide," said Celia's building consultant. "We can make it seem wider with some optical illusions. And paint, and a mist machine. It'll cost extra for that, but it would be cheaper than digging out an entire cavern and building lots of supports." [2] She took in a deep breath. "Any cavern would weaken the foundations. If we went with the current cavern, a good sized shock, like, say, a giant demonic soul monster being destroyed in even the depths of the Abyss would make the whole thing collapse."

"Fair enough," said Celia. "Go do that."

"And you said you wanted a lava flow somewhere in the underground? Too bad. That'll be a plain waterfall with red and yellow lights behind it or nothing."

"Why?" asked Celia.

Celia's building consultant sighed. "First, the amount of energy required to melt a single rock is already annoyingly large. Melting enough rocks to make a decent waterfall would... I'm just guessing here, but the energy costs from operating a real lava flow nonstop for less than a week would probably exceed the price of the land. This is assuming that we don't get cut off in the first few hours. Oh, and we'll have to set up a system that recycles the lava, which would have to be made from an insulator that can withstand the heat of the lava. Otherwise we'll have to keep feeding the machine more rocks. All. The. Time. We're not even getting into where we're going to dump all that lava. And you know what? Even if we could do all that, we still couldn't show off our awesome new lava machine. The heat and fumes would prevent anyone from going near it. Without a ton of air vents, fans, and the assumption that the government won't knock on our doors to complain about the poisonous gases that we keep on releasing into the air, the room is in an _enclosed area_. No one would even get a chance to see the thing! They'd suffocate long before then. Hell, the way the whole castle is connected, we'll get lava fumes everywhere! As for the heat-"

Celia cut her off with a raised hand. "Fine. Colorful lights behind a waterfall it is. I will provide you with all the money you will need. Just get it done."

"You don't want to hear about the effects large amounts of thermal energy has on-"

"No!"

After that, Celia's building consultant had more complaints about the design, and Celia ended up agreeing to most of her demands because she was tired and wanted to go home. The exceptions were all about the expensive items that Celia requested; Celia was adamant that she had enough money, even if her building consultant was skeptical. In the end, both of them agreed that it was a productive talk, and Celia's building consultant went home.

After Celia's building consultant left, Celia sighed. "I probably should tell her one of these days."

Celia went to her desk, took out a large sack, and teleported from her office in Russia to the inside of a bank vault in America. After grabbing everything she could, she teleported back into her office. She repeated until she ran out of energy. Then she went to bakery and bought herself a cupcake.

X

"Wow, that was a vivid dream," Soma told Mina the next day. "Tonight, I'll try wondering how Celia knew what Castlevania looked like when it was sealed before she was born and destroyed not long after it was temporarily unsealed."

"That might be why you said that she missed a lot of it," said Mina.

"It was nowhere near as perfect as she said, but it was too close for a coincidence," said Soma. "It's really weird how she managed to know so much about this incarnation of the castle. The castle changes every time it resurfaces, so she couldn't have gone through previous records."

"Did it really 'resurface', though?" asked Mina. "Julius didn't destroy it; my family sealed it. It should have stayed the same."

"Hm, good point," said Soma. "Leon said that the castle collapses every time Dracula dies, so maybe Julius sealing the castle before killing him might have stopped it from reforming. It would certainly explain why Julius said that he knew exactly where to find the Vampire Killer."

"And we don't know who else was with Julius at the time, so any of them could have told Celia," said Mina. "They could have given her an incomplete map or just told her from memory, so she had to make the rest from scratch."

"It's also perfectly possible that they might have forgotten about some places," said Soma. "I stopped going into the Study because it didn't have a teleporter, and Celia's castle didn't have anything like it."

"Teleporters?"

"No, a big room full of books. But that's not important right now."

That night, Soma dreamt about how the fur coats the Pensives left inside Narnia turned into sludge that later formed into walking hair monsters that ate Spongebob. And then Celia, Dmitrii, and Dario tried to raid Agency HQ in a giant robot while dressed as the Doronbo Gang, and Jonathan (Morris, not Harker) and Charlotte beat them while dressed as Yatterman and Yatterman 2. "I really should stop watching reruns," he said upon waking up.

X

The Killer Clown soul was surprisingly useful. Then again, Soma didn't have very high standards for a soul that made giant cards appear from nothing. It turned out that the soul had the power to manipulate playing cards. With it, Soma could magically swap any two cards in a deck without anyone noticing. Of course, for that to work, the soul had to include the power to identify every card in a deck, as long as Soma was touching it.

"Is this your card?" Soma showed the small child an ace of spades. He had been roped into helping out at an orphanage. [3]

"Witchcraft!" screamed the child, and she ran off.

"That was strange," said Mina.

"She's not wrong," said Soma.

"You're not a witch," said Mina.

"But I am a guy who uses dark magic," said Soma. "I use evil clown magic." He sighed. "But I can't play poker with you guys because you know I can cheat, and I can't gamble in casinos because they'll shoot me if I win too much. All I can do is card tricks."

"You could start playing children's playing card games," suggested Mina.

"Yeah, I probably could," said Soma. "I mean, it always seems as if whenever I watch someone play Duel Monsters, they always seem to have the right card at the right moment. If I used my power, no one would notice. Hey, you, want to see a card trick?"

Soma's card tricks with dark magic were impressive, but one nosy kid asked how he did it. When Soma went with the old fallback of 'magicians never tell someone their secrets', she just called him a liar. She kept staring at Soma whenever he tried something, so he gave up on cheating and just repeated the one card trick he legitimately knew, which wasn't particularly impressive the first ten times.

After he left the orphanage, Soma went and bought a deck of Duel Monsters cards, and got into the finals of some tournament. By the end, he was known as the 'Fate Duelist' for his uncanny luck, became a recurring and yet non-antagonistic rival, never got caught for cheating, and lost to the protagonists of a story that actually centered on dueling who were just better and more experienced. Soma was satisfied with being an innocent bystander when everyone else in the finals was either a main protagonist or the main antagonist. He ended up losing to the main antagonist, but that was all right because the main protagonist saved him from more eternal torment. Soma walked away with more money than he had before, a name for himself as a duelist, and a ton of neglected homework.

X

"Yoko, you said that you were a witch, right?" Soma asked Saturday after training with the Agency. Yoko was a regular at the training sessions, and her icicles were feared.

"Yes, I am a witch," said Yoko, drinking from the water fountain. "Why do you ask?"

"Back in Castlevania, and Celia's castle, there were witches and student witches flying around, and all of them were monsters," said Soma. "I knew they were monsters from their souls, but they all say that they were witches. And you're a witch, too, but you're human. How does that work?"

"Soma, Arikado told you that the word 'vampire' was an umbrella term, right?" said Yoko. Soma nodded. "It's like that with witches, except it's worse. Like with the word vampire referring to almost anything that drinks blood, the word witch refers to a woman with magic. There are magic using monsters that look like women, and they are also called witches."

"Are they bald and hate children?" asked Soma.

"There just might be some witches with rectangular feet and blue spit out there," said Yoko. "Those aside, human witches are already annoyingly broad. The idea of a woman with magic is so spread over many cultures. They don't even have to be women; there are male witches out there, too. You have witches with elemental magic, like me, witches with wands and broomsticks, witches who are normal women other than the fact that they are horrible people, witches who cast curses, witches who use dark magic, witches who make contracts with demons, women who are accused of being witches for—are you all right?"

Soma realized that he was crying. "I—I suddenly feel very sad, but I don't know why."

Yoko handed him a tissue. "I don't know either. Do you want to continue this conversation?"

"No, I don't," said Soma. "It's not that I don't like you, but I don't want to talk about witches anymore."

Yoko understood.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] The amount of candles in Celia's castle: I didn't bother to count, but you only see a cross section of the castle. There are probably more candles and things in the parts that you can't see. Ten thousand candles in one castle doesn't seem like that big of an exaggeration.

After 22 chapters, I finally passed the Bechdel test. Except Celia's building consultant isn't named.

[2] The narrow cavern: In one draft, I had a scene where Celia's building consultant added that the narrow cavern would make it much easier for earthquakes (such as the one when Menace died) to break the whole castle. I wasn't sure if I was right, so I didn't include it in the story.

I said that the narrow and long cavern would act like the hollow part of a musical instrument, and severe vibrations such as earthquakes would end up resonating with the air and walls. If it vibrated to a certain frequency, it could bring down the whole castle. I wasn't sure if that was physically sound, so I didn't include it. Is this right?

[3] "Is this your card?" and the Ace of Spades: This is a reference to a hilarious video that parodies Castlevania III, called Castlevania III in Brief. Apparently, the Belmonts were exiled because they had the terrifying power of card tricks.

Also, in the Dracula chapter, here are the answers to the name references.

Matthew's cousin Madeline is a reference to Hetalia, where Canada is named Matthew Williams, and his female name would be Madeline.

Jonathan's grandson, Joseph, is named after Joseph Joestar, whose grandfather was also named Jonathan. As a side note, Joseph Morris's father and mother were named George and Lisa Lisa like in Joseph Joestar's parents, but they weren't mentioned.

Loretta's granddaughter Leila is a reference to a non canon Castlevania game book. Leila is apparently Alucard's descendant in that book. The Lecardes are descended from Alucard, including Loretta's descendants, so Leila would be Alucard's descendant.

Peter's father Arthur is a reference to Hetalia, where England's younger brother is Sealand. England is named Arthur Kirkland and Sealand is Peter Kirkland. Sealand is closer to being England's son than brother, though.

The fact that Dracula makes Holy Garlic disappear is a joke about a weird thing in Simon's Quest where entering Dracula's chamber makes all garlic vanish.


	23. Chapter 23: Yoko

I'm back! Miss me?

So at some point (probably soon after this chapter is made), I'm going to make a new fic called Supernatural Support Society. That's where all the SMT ideas are going. Castlevania's still going to be in there, if you want to check it out.

Relates to two things that are very unrelated to this fic: Kakyoin from Jojo's Bizzare Adventure and Salem from Fire Emblem Thracia 776 have the same hair. Wonder if Salem is a reference?

Funny thing happened: I read the manga Seven Deadly Sins (Nanatsu no Taizai), and my friend watches the anime. Since I never heard anyone's name being spoken, I thought that the main character's name was pronounced Melio-DAS, with emphasis on the last syllable. Turns out it's Meli-OH-das.

To quote Hermione, "It's Meli-OH-das, not meli-oh-DAS!"

Yoko

"You're serious?" said Mina.

Yoko nodded. "This technique has been passed down from my family for generations."

"This seems a bit dangerous," said Mina.

"Never training your powers is even more dangerous," said Yoko. "Besides, every witch has tried this at least once. If you don't learn to do this now, you'll probably impale or incinerate some poor sap." She poured another Styrofoam cup. "Back in the old days, we had to carve cups like these out of wood. We weren't supposed to drink out of them, so it was fine if they had splinters. Breaking them was part of training, so we couldn't use metal or glass. The potters gave us their rejects, but there were so many of us that carving became a part of our training. Nowadays, we just use disposable cups. You know what to do."

"Freeze the water without breaking the cups, yes." Mina focused on the water and started channeling her magic. Very slowly, ice started to form on the bottom of the cup. Then it burst, scattering ice fragments everywhere. "Ow," she said.

"Happens to all of us," said Yoko. "If this were easy, then we wouldn't have to spend so much time doing this."

"You put out so many cups that I thought you were volunteering for a marathon," said Mina. She started again on the next cup.

Out of all the cups, four were perfect, three had deformed the cup but didn't break it, and fifteen of them completely broke.

"Don't be discouraged," said Yoko.

"I'm not," said Mina.

"Oh," said Yoko, blinking. "For some reason, I was expecting you to be upset, and think that you're stupid for not getting it right away. Or you'd think that this is just a pointless exercise."

"No, I'm fine," said Mina. "Did you really think that I'd act like that?"

"No, but whenever I think of taking an apprentice, I think of them being easily frustrated or bratty," said Yoko. "I mean, it's all right to get frustrated. That's natural. I got frustrated a lot when I learned this. But it's even better if you don't."

"It's a cliché," said Mina. "Writers try to make the apprentice more like the audience by making them impatient. But they miss the mark and the apprentices just seem stupid and whiny. Most people would think that the old master is trying to teach them a secret lesson anyways. Got any more cups?"

"Actually, let's move on," said Yoko, melting the ice shards and removing the Styrofoam. "Mina, try to boil the ice and water into vapor without making them explode. I'll pour some more for you while you do that."

Mina was a bit more successful at this. She attempted to burn the ice into vapor in one go on the first ice block, but that made the ice explode everywhere. She slowly burned the next hunk of ice, but she got impatient and thought it wasn't working when the water didn't boil after adding so much energy, so she blasted too much magic into it, blowing scalding hot water everywhere. Mina was patient on the other attempts (and remembered physics class), and it boiled perfectly. The attempts on water weren't as good, but it was progress from the first time Mina asked for lessons.

The first time Yoko brought Mina to the mountains to train, she had Mina just make bolts of fire, ice, and electricity appear. It wasn't easy, and Mina didn't think that she could do it if she didn't already know how to use magic from being a miko. The proceeding lessons were just Yoko watching Mina make bigger and stronger bolts of magic and occasionally giving bits of advice. Yoko warned Mina not to practice without her, because messing around with something as dangerous as magic without someone who could reverse the trainee's mistakes or at least do damage control was incredibly stupid.

One day, rather than bringing the multimeter and thermometer, Yoko called Mina over to her apartment for some accuracy training, with a table full of cups of water.

At the moment, the witch and the sorceress's apprentice were drinking tea. Yoko made the tea, saying that while Mina was capable of boiling the water, getting it to a drinkable temperature was a different matter entirely. Mina then suggested dropping ice in it, to which Yoko said that then the ice would bring it down to room temperature and they'd have to keep on repeating the process. Then Mina suggested making almost-boiling water and then letting it sit there until it was cool enough. Yoko admitted that that wasn't a bad idea, but she didn't want Mina to overuse her magic and was trying to get around that fact. Rather than using a kettle, Yoko had filled a pot with ice and then melted and boiled it. The fact that the pot didn't break under the sudden temperature change was either a testament to her skill or that of the pot maker.

"You'd think that you'd teach me how to do the everyday stuff before the icicle slinging," said Mina. "That's another cliché, isn't it? Learn the discipline before actually doing stuff."

Yoko shrugged. "Training magic is different than martial arts. At the very basic level, you need a minimally healthy body to learn martial arts. I'm not going to specify the 'basic requirements' as something like 'all your limbs' or 'not dying' because if I did, there's at least one person who learned kung fu or something with no arms or one leg or lung. There's always someone who's going to succeed at something after they're been told that they can't. But I'm getting off topic here. The point is that when you started, you physically couldn't do what you did today. I couldn't teach you how to boil water until you could make your fire hot enough to boil it."

"Makes sense," said Mina.

"Not to mention that I can't teach you discipline until you know what you're holding back," said Yoko. "It's the difference between purposefully not using magic and merely being unable to do so. I can't teach you how to pull a punch until you can throw one properly. Besides, it's easier and less frustrating for both of us. If any of this seems contrary, just remember that there are as many schools of teaching as there are people in the world. This is just what I think is best."

Mina looked around the apartment. "What else do you use your magic for?"

"Lots of things," said Yoko. "I boil water for things like tea or instant ramen, but even though I can make very hot flames, I can't make even very small fires last for a long time. It's not very good for most types of cooking, unless I have a wood pile ready."

"And I guess you can't use ice for refrigeration, or else the fridge wouldn't be plugged in," said Mina.

"When it melts, it gets everywhere," said Yoko. "And I can't be on it all the time. It's useful for blackouts, though. I fill my bathtub with ice and dump things in there. And magic is very useful when you're surviving in the wilderness…"

X

The Agency had once trained their agents only in the art of fighting, but after a fiasco where their plane crashed and most of them almost starved to death, they started a petition to have survival exercises.

Yoko was pretty popular on these expeditions, and not because she was a good looking person that the others wouldn't mind being one of the people they'd be forced to see almost all the time for over a week. Well, that was a part of it, but it was mostly because of her magic. She made campfire duty much easier, and she could preserve meat with ice magic.

Eventually, her bosses caught on. They didn't mind that she used magic, just that the others were taking advantage of her and not polishing their own survival skills. So they barred her from using magic on the team camping trips (they told her that it would be a good idea for her to learn how to survive without magic), and had her do solo survival tests in addition to the normal group rotations. Since it was dangerous for one person to survive on their own (not to mention irresponsible, and her relatives would be liable to either sue or incinerate the people responsible), they had required her to radio in every night, so that they could rescue her if she met with an accident.

Going solo was much harder than before, but Yoko learned quickly. Now that she was taken off of campfire duty and found that no one else would be around to do hunting, gathering, or latrine duty, she had find her own solutions. She learned how to use her icicles to shoot deer and fish, and that even if it took more out of her, it was sometimes safer to melt her own ice than to boil the surrounding water. She also found that she had to gather wood for fires because she couldn't keep it up without getting tired, and that she still have to insulate the frozen hunks of meat because constantly freezing them took too much energy.

The Agency was a bit worried about her being off on her own, but by the time they came to pick her up, she was killing time. She had actually gotten bored on the survival mission, and started drawing on cave walls with animal blood.

X

"What about electricity?" asked Mina. "Do you have a use for thunder magic?"

"Never tried it," said Yoko. "The only thing I can think of is charging my stuff. If I tried that, they'd blow up. I don't know enough about chargers or standardized electric socket outputs."

"I guess _Final Fantasy X_ is unrealistic, after all," said Mina. "I mean, besides the giant flying whale and the city that doesn't exist. Ever played it?"

"Mina, that game is older than I am," said Yoko.

"I like classics," said Mina. "Anyways, there's a boss battle early on where the party fights a mecha on a boat, and they have a mage cast lightning spells on a nearby crane so that the one guy who can use technology can use it to kill the mecha. Metaphorically speaking, that is."

"Why was the crane uncharged in the first place?" asked Yoko.

"Maybe they were running low on electricity and didn't bother to charge it that time?" suggested Mina. "But anyways, you could use an amplifier or something to lower your output. It might work, but I'd ask someone who actually knows this stuff."

"Do you know anyone who does?" asked Yoko.

Mina shook her head. "I'd ask an engineering professor, but I don't want to tell them about how I was planning on using magic to charge my laptop."

"That would be a bad idea," said Yoko. "Anyways, I don't have anything for you to practice with electricity, and you're pretty good with fire magic, so let's do more ice magic before you leave."

"All right," said Mina.

X

"You're sure about this?" asked Yoko. Over the course of a year, she had completely forgotten about the conversation she and Mina had about the uses of lightning magic. Now, Mina was inside her apartment for another training session, holding a box.

"I'm sure," said Mina. "I got together some of the people from the SSS to make it. We've got a mechanical genius who can detect the slightest flaws with her Persona, a guy who has absurd skill with machines due to rumor magic, and some physics and engineering students."

"I appreciate the thought, but why did you come to me?" asked Yoko.

"You're the best woman for the job," said Mina. "Everyone has power, but you're practically the only one who has control. Aoi can't tone it down or aim it like you can; all the Persona users have fixed high outputs; Soma, Flynn, and Isabeau rely on their souls and their computers to cast spells and aren't casting it themselves; Kazuya's demons cost money; and I'm not as good as you are." [1]

Mina put down the circuit she was carrying. "Just aim for this wire here, and we'll see if these lights turn on."

"Those are a lot of lightbulbs," said Yoko.

"We used up all the resistors," said Mina. "Go on, try it."

Yoko cast her lightning magic, and all of the lightbulbs lit up very brightly. Then they all shorted out at once.

"They didn't blow up, so that's good," said Mina. "Don't worry, it's not you, it's the circuit. It's just a prototype."

"I wasn't worried," said Yoko. "I've been using magic longer than you've been alive. I don't to be reassured to know that I'm good." Yoko paused and stared at the outside of the breadboard. "Strong resistors are expensive. Did you really get everyone to make this just out of curiosity?"

"Well, it was my idea, and _I_ was curious. But I think that Aoi wanted to make sure that she could make a generator in case of another apocalypse, Other Tatsuya Suou wanted to make a Persona powered engine, Mitsuru saw it as an investment to cut down on energy costs for her operations (especially since she has to recharge two robots on a regular basis), Fuuka wanted to have extra electricity for her projects, Kei wanted a source of clean energy, and I don't know about the others, but I think they either just wanted extra credit or free laptop charges."

"Who's giving them extra credit?" asked Yoko, raising an eyebrow.

"One of the Professors greenlighted the project and gave us the basic supplies," said Mina, not letting a bit of shame into her voice. "Don't worry. She's a member of the SSS, and we're pretending to make a machine that takes energy from lightning strikes. Turns out that she's Haruka and Hikaru Kuroba's aunt."

"Who?" asked Yoko.

"Doesn't matter who they are; she's in on the code of silence," said Mina. "You know, if anyone overheard us talking about the SSS out of context, they'd think that we're an evil organization." She took back the box. "I'll go tell the others about the results."

"Actually, how about I come with you whenever you're testing?" said Yoko. "When I'm not busy, of course. How else are you going to test it?"

Mina looked at Yoko, and smiled. "I think that this is going to be really useful someday."

X

John Personwhosenameyoudonotneedtoremember looked at the thick stack the glum guard handed him after he first teleported into Freetown. According to Mr. Cruz, everyone who was going to stay even a night in Freetown had to fill out the paperwork. The first part had the usual: name, birthday, contact information, allergies, etc. But there were some stranger questions. "Have you ever died before…Can you use lightning magic?" he repeated.

Mr. Cruz looked up from his book on plumbing. "If you can generate electricity over a certain threshold, you're required to go to the power plant at least once a week to help charge it. You're provided with free housing, but you can't get out of it. It's probably illegal, but we make the laws here."

"Why do I have to?" asked John.

Mr. Cruz closed his book with a snap. "We can't steal electricity from cities, can't burn coal, can't make windmills or watermills, or anything else you can think of. We're stuck with either people shooting lightning or doing the electric bicycle."

"The what?" repeated John.

"A couple hundred years ago, this guy named Hector invented a stationary bike that made electricity," explained Mr. Cruz. "He gave it to his friends' baby shower because he forgot about it until the night before, and just gave Sypha and Trevor the first thing he saw."

"Do you really expect me to believe…" John trailed off.

Mr. Cruz handed him a cat. "John, you told me that you have psychic powers. You're immigrating to a city that resides in an alternate dimension where everyone is weird and you're not allowed to spread negative rumors."

"I thought you were joking about that," said John.

"You're not the one who had to clear the little green men from Jupiter out of the TV station."

John nodded, picked up his pen, and wondered if the only doctors in the world who could treat his wounds without calling the cops (and weren't members of the evil organization that raised him) were worth all this weird stuff.

"And there's no point in pretending that you can't use electricity magic to get out of power plant duty!" yelled Mr. Cruz. John quickly scribbled over his statement.

X

That Thursday was John's first day at the power plant. It was a law that everyone who didn't have a more pressing job (such as ambulance or emergency room doctor) was given a holiday on Thursdays, so that people with lightning magic could go earn their house keep.

John was very surprised to see that the other people shuffling in weren't just workers or salarymen like him. He recognized the local psychologist, the guy who sold stuffed animals, and even the mayor. One person in particular stood out. "You're here, too?"

"I told you, you can't get out of power plant duty," grumbled Mr. Cruz. "They know I don't run out of juice, so I'm here all day. You're lucky. You just get sucked dry once."

John nodded. This place was getting creepier by the second…

He turned around and gaped. "Is that a child running that huge machine!?"

"That's the electric bicycle," said Mr. Cruz without even looking. "They modified it for a larger scale. And that's not a child. That's the Demi Fiend. He's just a year younger than I am."

John stared at the kid, and then at Mr. Cruz. No matter how he cut it, Mr. Cruz had a few decades on him.

"He became a demon in high school, and he hasn't aged since," explained Mr. Cruz. "He always looked a bit young for his age, but now it's a problem. We didn't notice that he didn't age until we graduated from college. There isn't much difference between a third year high school student and a first year college student, after all. And what's another year? When he went to get his first legal drink, he got carded, but everyone gets carded. Anyways, when he went to go get a job, the interviewer thought he was a high schooler. He got the job, but when he laughed about it later, we had to check. Then we went through his photo album, and we found that even though the rest of us looked like adults, he didn't. So now he's a vagabond. He can't keep any job that requires him to be around for more than a few years, and he can't even use his resume without exposing his real age. And he even has a degree in… guess what."

"English? No, Japanese."

"Quantum physics, with a minor in math," said Mr. Cruz. "He said that he studied those to make sense out of all the alternate worlds. I did tell him that I could put in a good word with my boss—no, not the one here, but he said that he didn't want to fight on someone else's orders."

"Why doesn't he just work here, in Freetown?" asked John. "I mean, I can't think of any jobs that involve quantum physics, but there's got to be someone who can use that."

Mr. Cruz shrugged. "He was a vagabond for several years before Freetown was a real town. By the time we had actual jobs to be done here, he was too used to freedom. I think that he wouldn't be happy with a nine to five job, but he looked for one because it's expected of him and his aunt and uncle put a lot into his education. He's paying his college debt off now by doing the electric bicycle every day he's in Freetown."

"Isn't that a job?" asked John.

"Technically, yes," said Mr. Cruz. "The bike's been modified to the point where it takes several people pushing on the wheel to finish one revolution from a standing position. Normal people, that is. According to him, it's being paid for exercising and watching TV. Plus, he and Chie compete over how much electricity they can generate with the bicycle."

"Chie?"

"Chie Satonaka, the MMA fighter," said Mr. Cruz. "She apparently kicked a tank into orbit. But I guess you're not interested."

"No, not really," said John.

"Then get to work," grumbled Mr. Cruz. "I want to get my quota done as soon as possible, and you'd better, too."

X

Meanwhile, Kazuya was glad that his COMP drew power from the Abyss and never needed recharging. Flynn and Isabeau blissfully thought that a 'charger' was a kind of war horse.

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Only Yoko has control: I like to think that the SMT characters in general have more raw power than the Castlevania characters, but the Castlevania characters are more agile and skilled. It's because the Castlevania games are Platformers that require fast reflexes to play, and the player has to manually dodge and aim. SMT RPGs have grinding as a greater priority, and the dodge rate is fixed by a calculator. However, the characters in RPGs get stronger, while pure Platformer characters don't. Metroidvanias are a mix of both, but I like thinking that the rate at which RPG characters improve is greater than that of Metroidvania characters. Both RPGs and Platformers require tactical thinking and skilled, patient players.

By the way, Yoko did not find the lamp that activates with electric magic (the one that summons the mothman) in Celia's castle because Soma didn't become Dracula and she never had to go inside. Soma did find it, but he figured that it was just another anomaly inside a magical castle.

I just started playing SMT Apocalypse, and someone at the start does mention that his smartphone battery is almost dead, so while the player never sees it, people do have to charge them. The Yamato Perpetual Reactor makes it so that no one has to worry about power, which explains a bit. You don't ever have to charge them in the games because that mechanic would be too annoying in an already hard game. Still, you can get stranded in places without a single electric socket without anyone worrying about charging. Hence infinite energy from the Abyss for Kazuya and Aleph. I think that Burroughs has something to do with SMT4's Gauntlets never needing a charge, and same with Dagda and Nanashi's smartphone (I mean, if he fixed a phone, brought a guy back to life, and even got the bloodstains and other damage out of his clothes, why not keep it charged forever?)

Guess why power plant day is on Thursday.


	24. Chapter 24: The Belmonts

Power Plant Day is every Thursday because Thursday is Thor's day. The only person who mentioned Thor was Wraith's Heart.

I know I said that I wouldn't be including new SMT characters, but Fireminer had a question about Akemi Nakajima and Yumiko Shirasagi (the two protagonists of Digital Devil Story, the book series that the game Megami Tensei was based off of). They do not exist in this dimension. Mostly because I don't know very much about them (I checked out the OVA and liked it, but that's pretty much it). In-universe, it's because Persona 4 happened and Izanami is there and behaving very differently from DDS. I could go into my theory on how demons are ideas and can be in separate places, be random encounters, fusable demons, and fight against each other because all the demons and gods under a certain name are actually all the same being broken up into smaller pieces (i.e. every randomly encountered Thor is the a part of the same Thor), but that would be confusing.

The Visionary scene in the remake of SMT1 does imply that Kazuya got Pascal from the same Nakajima, but you'd think that Nakajima would do _something_ about all the demons running around.

I wonder, though. Is Lilith called Yuriko and designed in-game to look like Yumiko to make her seem like she's going to be the heroine?

The Other Belmonts

Leon was honestly impressed with the ingenuity of his descendants. He relied greatly upon his knight training for everyday life and survival, but not all of his descendants had his training. They usually improvised.

Take Sonia, for instance. Sonia Belmont had rather interesting magical abilities. She was unable to teach her descendants magic, which was fine because her daughter in law Sypha picked up the slack. However, sometimes Sonia lamented the fact that her children and grandchildren couldn't learn her incredibly useful magic.

Sonia found that living in exile was harder than she thought, even if it did beat being hanged/drowned/burned at the stake, and took lots of shortcuts with magic.

"Sonia, dear?" said Sonia's entirely human husband one night.

"Yes, husband?" said Sonia.

"I'm grateful for the game you bring back from the woods, but I've been getting complaints from town." Sonia gave her husband a Look. He continued. "I know that we're in exile and everyone already knows that you're a witch, but… is it really a good idea to advertise the fact by chasing after deer while running at superhuman speed, whipping them to death, and getting shot at by scared hunters?"

"I have to admit, I was pretty worried, but the whole point is that it's an invincibility spell, isn't it?" said Leon. "But if I could move things, I'd haunt Stanley for that arrow. There's got to be something easily breakable in that house."

Sonia picked up the Vampire Killer. "Husband, I need to stay in practice. Something strange is happening to the monsters. They've always been aggressive, but they've been calmer as of late. It's almost as if they're planning something. It's eerie."

"… You're just bored, aren't you?" said Sonia's husband.

Sonia slammed the table in frustration. "Nothing's been happening!" she shouted. "Back when I was a lass, I couldn't throw a stick without hitting a wraith or a kobold! I'd be up all night whipping them until their skulls split! People would line up in front of our door for blocks! After last year, all the requests I've gotten were about witches stealing milk, or pixies pinching chickens, and it always turns out to be some poor kid who can't feed himself."

"You're the only one who can complain about no monster attacks," sighed Sonia's husband.

"I should concur, but I can't bring myself to say that to her," said Leon.

"Husband, they exiled us because they thought they no longer needed me," Sonia growled. "I thought that there'd be plenty of demons to kill out here. But it's been nothing but deer and rabbits."

Sonia got her wish years later, when Dracula began his rampage across Europe. Unfortunately, the Church was rather firm on the subject of a man being the one who would invade Dracula's castle. As little Sonia regarded the sexism at the time, Trevor also hated the idea of putting his mother in danger of losing her life and soul (if the rumors of dying in the castle were true; no one could really prove that the castle devoured the soul, but they didn't want to go about experimenting). Sonia also reciprocated those feelings, but Trevor had a better argument. He said that inside a castle that huge, the hunter would probably spend most of the time running away from enemies than actually fighting. Hanging around and killing invaders, on the other hand, would involve chasing _after_ monsters with the intent to kill. Not to mention that Sonia would be a much more visible hero to the people of Wallachia than Trevor. Sonia decided to satisfy her bloodthirst and glorythirst by running around killing monsters around Wallachia, while Trevor risked his life killing Dracula. In the end, Trevor came home to a hero's welcome and a broken exile, but Sonia's efforts (i.e. thrill seeking) let them be accepted.

X

Trevor was cunning in his fights and in his life, but sometimes he took it too far. Both Grant and Alucard agreed that Trevor was the dirtiest fighter they had ever seen. Sypha would have agreed, but she rarely had the chance to observe her enemies' strategies before she incinerated them.

None of them were happy to see how Trevor dealt with money once he was out of exile. Well, Alucard was sleeping in a crypt somewhere, but Grant and Sypha certainly weren't.

"Look, I know it's easy money, but you've got to stop!" said Grant. "You were already exiled for having strange powers. What are they going to think after you keep winning?"

Trevor shrugged. "Their loss," he said. "I've never had a chance to actually spend money! I wonder what baker's bread tastes like? Besides, I killed Dracula and stopped the curse. They wouldn't exile me again."

Grant sighed. "Trevor, what do you think Sypha would say if she knew?"

Trevor shrugged. "I don't think she would mind, if we can pay off the house. Besides, we need furniture. Especially chairs. We need lots of chairs." Trevor was wrong. About Sypha minding, not the chairs.

"I mind," growled Grant. "Whenever someone won more than what we thought was their fair share, we'd pressgang them and make them walk the plank."

"I'd like to see them try," said Trevor, who didn't know why Grant's pirate crew would want them to stroll across a wooden beam, but inferred that it was something bad.

"Well… how about this," said Grant, an epiphany slapping him like a fish. "They won't know how you're cheating, but they will know that you are. People don't just waltz into taverns and clear out the veteran cardsharps. Someone's going to try to kill you, Trevor. And you don't want that, do you?"

"Of course not," said Trevor, but Grant continued.

"So you're going to fight back," said Grant. "But you're the man who killed Dracula. They won't stand a chance. But they'll keep coming. There's going to be an accident sooner or later. You'd be hanged for murder or manslaughter, and your family will be exiled again."

Trevor's face turned grave. "You're right, friend," he said. "I'll stop cheating."

"Good."

"In excess."

"That's a start," said Grant.

As they walked home, Trevor asked, "Grant? Just curious. How do you think I'm cheating?"

"Well, as a completely impartial judge, I'd say that you had studied the arcane arts of Stattis-Ticks," said Grant. "But, as your friend, I know that you're using that Stopwatch of yours."

"You know me well, friend," said Trevor. Then he dug a knife out of his sack. _The_ Knife. "Let's go find someone who's willing to bet on a game of darts!"

Grant sighed. It was an improvement. Or at least the first step towards one.

X

"Father?" said the young Soleil Belmont.

"Yes, son?" asked Christopher, looking up from his task of kneading the dough.

"Why do you take a whip with you when you go woodcutting?" asked Soleil. "When the other children's fathers go to cut wood, they carry axes."

"Well, your friends' fathers don't have magical whips that lasted five hundred years of almost constant use without any sign of rot or wearing," said Christopher. "Axes blunt and need repairing. The Vampire Killer is practically indestructible. Give me a hand with the oven, will you?"

X

Simon's life as a cursed wanderer would have been a lot less bearable if it weren't for his sub weapons. And half the time, it wasn't even about monsters.

"I know I'm paying you a lot of money, but please, stop throwing those things at me!" said the jeweler, dodging a Diamond.

"I'm sorry," said Simon, taking aim and trying to calculate the trajectory of the shiny diamond. "It doesn't work unless I throw it. Hold still; I'm pretty sure that you won't get hit this time."

"Oh, it doesn't work unless he throws it?" repeated the jeweler mockingly. "Well—ow!"

"Sorry," said Simon, who had done that on purpose that time. Had he been born in a later century, he would have been a champion squash player. "They only appear right after I throw it. Do you want my diamonds or not?"

"At least pick them up," said the jeweler. "Good thing we moved into the back room. No fragile glass cases here."

Simon looked up. "Did the roof… is it missing some bricks?"

The jeweler looked up and saw the sunshine. "Oh, no. You're going to have to thatch that."

"Are you kidding me!?" shouted Simon. "I'm on a mission to not die! I can't waste time here!"

"Then give me one more diamond, and I can pay someone else to do it for me. NO DON'T THROW THAT IN-"

Simon threw yet again another diamond. The jeweler had the presence of mind to get out of the way, but unfortunately for his shop, it was a very destructive diamond. All it did when it hit the floor or wall was chip a bit off of the stone, but when it hit the roof bricks, they vanished with a blip.

When Simon walked out of the shop, a large bag of coins heavier (but a few coins lighter than he wanted), Simon was grumbling to himself. "Jewelers these days, can't take a little pain for some magically replicating diamonds. When I killed Dracula, they were grateful. Now they won't take anything. Innkeepers are even worse…"

And then night fell very suddenly.

"I hate nighttime," Simon grumbled again, decapitating a werewolf thing.

X

Leon still had to admit that sometimes his descendants screwed up.

"I'm sorry," said Juste, head lowered.

"For?" said the stablemaster.

"I'm sorry for killing your pony," said Juste. He cleared his throat. "I was wrong to try to use a whip on a pony when I had never used one before. I'm sorry for thinking that the old whips in the stable weren't sturdy enough for my hands, so I used the Vampire Killer. I'm sorry for using the Vampire Killer, the magical indestructible whip that slaughtered tens of thousands of creatures of the night, on your pony."

The stablemaster glared at Juste, but grudgingly said, "I accept your apology. On two conditions."

Juste gulped.

"First, never again shall your family use any whip on a horse," said the stablemaster. "Your behavior today has proved that a family that has been trained to kill giant monsters with whips should not be allowed to drive fragile horses with whips."

Juste agreed in a small voice.

"My other condition is that your family will compensate me for this pony," said the stablemaster. "Not just the market price of a strong pony. Feeding and stabling that pony for all those years cost a pretty penny, too. Not to mention the, ahem, emotional damages from having the pony you raised with your own two hands being killed by your employer's son?"

Juste nodded numbly.

"Your family has money," said Lydie, later that day. "They have a giant house."

"Yes, I know we have money," said Juste, head buried in his hands. "We have a giant house filled with antique furniture that hasn't tarnished since they were forged hundreds of years ago. I have no idea how a blacksmith forged my mother's wooden chest of drawers, but he did it. But that doesn't mean that my parents won't kill me for this."

"You could sell all your stuff," suggested Maxim. "They'll never find out."

"You could sell yourself," said Lydie.

Juste looked up. "That's a great idea!"

Lydie's eyes widened. "I wasn't serious!"

"No, I could go get a job and pay off the stablemaster! Or something!"

From that day forward, Juste would sneak out of his house to go repair roofs. At least, he would summon a fairy to hammer in the nails because he didn't want to hurt his hands with a hammer. But he got paid for it in the end. Eventually, the stablemaster complained to his parents about not getting the money, and Juste got into a lot of trouble.

Surprisingly, Juste's parents weren't that upset about Juste going out every night to work. In fact, they encouraged him to do so. They encouraged him so much that they didn't let him back in the house for over a week.

X

In Leon's opinion, Richter had the best idea on how to use his sub weapons out of all of his descendants.

"Hydro Storm! Hydro Storm! Hydro Storm!"

Every time Richter shouted the name of his attack, a heavy rain of Holy Water fell from the heavens.

"Hydro Storm! Hydro Storm!"

Richter slowly fell to the ground, exhausted. "Is that enough?"

"Thank you so much!" said the farmer. "The drought's been horrible. I never thought that anyone could help us!"

"It's no big deal," Richter said. "All I need is some food for my journey."

"Of course." The farmer would have agreed to anything at that point. Actually, he didn't even hear Richter because Richer was shouting so loudly, and was slightly disappointed when Richter came along with requests for supplies instead of his first born child.

When Richter started wandering the country (and possibly continent; at one point he ended up in a region where he could not understand anything the locals said) without the Vampire Killer, he expected to be killing monsters left and right. And that was true.

What he did not expect, however, was making a decent part of his living by watering crops. Richter did know how to work on a farm and did anticipate some labor on slower monster hunting seasons, but not until one of his employers lamented the fact that all their work sowing the fields would be useless did Richter realize the use of that small bottle of Holy Water he kept on him at all times. Besides, well, drinking out of it.

The first time Richter used the Hydro Storm to water the fields, he did it at night, in secret. He got caught, mostly because he had to shout, "HYDRO STORM!" at the top of his lungs whenever he did that. Technically, he didn't _have_ to, but it didn't feel right if he didn't.

Richter would have been burned at the stake as a witch, had he not protested that he was watering the fields with Holy Water. The village priest tested the water, deemed it sufficiently holy, and allowed Richter to continue watering the plants. The village leader gave Richter a letter of recommendation, so that Richter could ply his water trade without being hanged for witchcraft.

Unfortunately, the village leader wasn't exactly popular, and Richter often had to run away from villages that thought was both a witch and a spy before he caught on.

TO BE CONTINUED!

I was this close to including Victor Belmont (the one who never got his own game, not Leon's son) as the one who played darts with the Knife subweapon, before I realized that his life couldn't be resolved as easily as Sonia's. There's no material on him other than his design notes, and I established that the Belmonts after Richter weren't forced to be vampire hunters. Victor Belmont in this fic was a descendant of the Belmonts who ran away from the hideout… and never went time travelling or killed Dracula. He became a gambler and did gambling things, like math.

And yes, I did mess up by naming Leon's son Viktor.

I did come up with the idea that all the Belmonts had something weird about them. Leon is a doting grandmother, Sonia is a violent gloryhound, Trevor is tricky but good with his friends, Christopher is normal, Simon is a cranky old man, Juste is a teenager with a short attention span, Richter is very over the top, and Julius is… well, also normal. Julius is normal mostly because by the time I gave everyone character quirks, Julius was already the authority figure.


	25. Chapter 25: ArikadoAlucard

After this chapter, this story will go on hiatus again. Life happened. I'll pick it up in a few months. Thank you for sticking with me so far.

Sorry, Minaly22, but I'm not including Dante. It's partially because I promised not to include any more non-Castlevania characters outside of cameos, but mostly because I've never played DMC.

Arikado/Alucard/Whatever

Soma's worst fears had come true. Well, not his _worst_ fears. Soma was afraid of a lot of things. But this one was definitely on the Top 10 list.

He was sitting on a hard wooden chair in a very plain room. There was a desk with piles of paperwork and books, a potted plant in the corner, and a window. Soma kept on looking to the side, wondering at the sheer lack of decoration, to avoid what was in front of him.

For in front of him was the spawn of Lord Dracula, a tempered master of dark magic, a swordsman of great skill, and… wait, none of that really frightened Soma. It was mostly because the guy in front of him was (kind of) his boss.

"Soma," said Arikado. Soma gulped. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Since Celia's castle," Soma said in a quiet voice.

Arikado nodded. "Which ones?"

"What?" said Soma, anxiety clouding his thoughts.

"Which powers did you use?" asked Arikado levelly, futilely hiding his fury. He was a master at the art, but Dracula knew him too well.

"Waiter Skeleton," said Soma. "The… one that makes curry appear from nothing. And then the Ghoul…"

Soma then spent a long time describing all of the souls he had used without telling Arikado, how he used them, and why.

"Who else knows about this?" asked Arikado, once Soma had asserted several times that that was it.

"Mina," said Soma quietly. "It was my idea! Don't bring her into this!" he added with surprisingly ferocity.

"I never intended to do so," said Arikado. "Who else?"

"Julius," said Soma. "Hammer. Yoko. My roommates. The… SSS."

"The what?" asked Arikado.

Soma coughed. "After… well, after I found out that I'm not the only one who has to hide my powers, we—by that, I mean everyone else who has to hide—decided to have a support group, like Alcoholics Anonymous. We'd talk about stuff that we can't tell the world because we have to keep that stuff a secret—they understand that it's a secret to everyone, because they can't bring their secrets to the media, either. It kind of… grew from there."

"How… big is this organization?"

"Relative to what?" asked Soma. "Are we talking on the scale of a sports team, a school, a school club, a government organization, what?"

"How many people?"

Soma shrugged. Ignoring the subject of rule breaking helped his thought processes along. "Maybe a couple hundred, maybe a thousand. We have a master list, but I'm not the one counting. Mina, my roommates, Julius, and I founded it. Yoko joined for the networking. Leon in there, too. Turns out that lots of people can see him."

Arikado was silent.

"Do you want to join?" asked Soma. "No one would care that you're a vampire. Everyone's honor-bound to never expose the secrets of a fellow member. We're getting a psychologist in a few years. At least, if he survives college."

"You told them about Dracula, didn't you," said Arikado, cold fury returning to him.

"Yes, but they can't tell anyone else!" said Soma quickly. "I know their secrets, too! Some of them are even worse than mine! No one cares about Dracula; they're up in arms about the teenage boy who killed everyone in his universe!" Seeing Arikado's silence, he composed himself. "Besides," he said, taking a deep breath. "It's better that they find that Dracula is alive in the modern world through a support group than wherever Graham and Celia got their information from. I admit that Dracula's name carries more weight to the humans of this universe compared to others—who knows about the Demi-Fiend or the Godslayer, after all? Lots of people are descended from Dracula's victims, and some of them would like to drive a stake through my heart. But if they're serious hunters, they'd eventually find a source of information that would bring them straight to me without knowing that I'm just Dracula's reincarnation. If I'm up front about this, there's no room for misunderstanding. God, I sound naïve."

"Soma," said Arikado. "There is too much room for misunderstanding. The idea that Dracula's reincarnation is trying to coexist peacefully would spread around the hunting community. However, there is always a chance that someone will think that you are lying. They can also abuse the organization's resources to find the best way to kill you. Do you really think that telling more people would be a good idea?"

"Arikado, you underestimate how strange these stories are," said Soma. "I can't tell you much, but we're starting from the fact that my roommates are a demon and a demon summoner and getting worse from there. Besides, I can't stop now. If I suddenly stopped telling people that I was Dracula, they'd be even more suspicious."

Arikado nodded, frowning. "All right then," he said. "I will not interfere with this organization of yours. But back on the subject of your souls." Soma gulped. "Am I the only one of your… social circle of supernatural beings who did not know about this?"

Soma nodded shakily. "…Yes," he said. "The spies know, too. Don't bring them into this. I bribed them into not telling you. I was afraid that you would shut me down."

"As long as you remain responsible, you can continue."

Soma looked up. "What?"

"If I tried to ban you from abusing your powers, you would go to even greater lengths to keep it a secret from me," said Arikado. "That would have even worse results."

"Oh," said Soma. "Okay then."

After Soma left, standing up much straighter than before, Arikado suddenly collapsed. "Thank God he hasn't been abusing the power to make hot demon women appear whenever he wants!"

X

Arikado's sympathy for Soma's use of demonic powers stemmed partially from his own plight. He himself often used his vampire powers.

While one might think that an immortal vampire would gain insane interest from banks, the problem was that any bank with a hundred year old account would get suspicious. That was why Arikado lived in an apartment where the only source of heat was his Hellfire. The same went with driver's licenses. Arikado had one from a few decades ago, but since he was clearly not a seventy year old man, he could never show it to anyone.

Arikado decided that he would never get into an accident, because then the police would ask him for his license. However, accidents happen all the time to people who are not at fault. After a drunk driver crashed into his car one foggy morning, Arikado narrowly escaped questioning by abandoning his car, destroying the license plates and all other evidence, and flying off in bat form. The police showed up shortly afterwards. They came up with all these weird theories about ghost drivers and aliens, which indirectly led to an incident where two cop brothers had to handcuff an alien ghost.

Rather than driving, Arikado decided that the best course of action was to turn into a wolf and run to work every day. He made sure to always have his collar on. It was always very awkward when his coworkers decided to pet the adorable doggy that always passed by HQ, though.

Decades later, when the perpetually-teenaged Naoki told Arikado about how there was a service in the SSS that gave immortals (and kids with emergencies) fake IDs that were technically real because they were made by people who made real IDs, Arikado stood stock still for several minutes, not speaking a word.

TO BE CONTINUED!


End file.
